Not a Cloud in the Sky by Emma Quay

 When life gets busy sometimes it’s easy to forget to look up and so you can miss on some really marvellous clouds (don’t even get me started on stars!) having kids around can provide you with opportunities to not only look up but also down and at most things that we would normally miss. We’ve been looking at clouds lately due to a school subject on weather for which we made a ‘cloudometer’ and just because clouds are just so darn fascinating. One of the lovely things about clouds is their ability to look like other things. Emma Quay uses this as the premise of her delightful new book called Not a Cloud in the Sky. A little bird meets a cloud who wants to play a guessing game. The bird, tired from travel, is rejuvenated by the simple, fun game as the cloud takes on all manner of shapes like a giraffe and an elephant and a dragon beautifully timed to coincide with sunset.

This is a playful story that celebrates play and imagination and the friendships that spring from unlikey sources. It also has some rather nice little zen sentiments about life like things looking different from another point of view. The text and the illustrations capture the playful nature of the story; there’s a sense of delight and fun that make reading it so enjoyable. And the illustrations are just lovely with the sweet little bird and the wispy, cheeky little cloud and the transition from day to nightime reflected in the colours of the sky.

My son adores this book and happily took it to school so his teacher could read it to the class where it was well received. A great book for children and cloud lovers everywhere.

There are some interesting explanations about the illustrations on Emma’s website http://www.emmaquay.com/illustrating.html#cloud

ISBN : 9780733330919

RRP: $24.99

Publisher: ABC Books  

No. of pages: 32 pages

Rating: 4.5

Themes: Friendship, imagination, play, weather, clouds

Suitable for : 3+

Don't Breathe a word

Mackenzie Carew has a lot on her plate. She has to redo a school assignment (apparently 'A History of Toilets through the Ages' just wasn't going to cut it), she thinks she's getting a crush on a boy from school and her best friend always wants to play with the twitty twins Tegan and Regan. But her biggest problem is that something strange is going on with her Grandpa Pirate (so called because he has a sunken chest - bom bom) and her 'hormonal' sister Tahlia has made her promise that she won't tell anyone about it. Tahlia is worried that if someone finds out that Pirate, their guardian, is behaving erratically then their family will be split up and they don't want that to happen.
The girls decide that Pirate's state of health is temporary and they will keep an eye on him until he gets better, hopefully before school holidays finish. As the holidays draw on and Pirate seems to be getting worse, the responsibility of keeping the situation secret falls on Mackenzie's shoulders and she finds it increasingly difficult to hide Pirate's confused state of mind and his midnight ramblings. With the holidays drawing to a close and no miraculous recovery in sight Mackenzie is getting worried, particularly when her heavily pregnant half sister and a well meaning neighbour become suspicious and threaten to interfere.

Dementia is a difficult issue for adults to understand, let alone kids. Books like this and Layla Queen of Hearts by Glenda Millard, engage with the subject well without getting maudlin and bogged down in boringly good intentions. Don't Breathe a Word is sensitively written, but it also describes the bizarrely funny situations that can occur when loved ones suffer from this bewildering disease. It deals with a serious issue and shows that it is okay to see the funny side of it. I got a big laugh out of Mackenzie's inspired problem solving like when she decides to deal with her grandfather's incontinence by wrapping his mattress in bubble wrap.

' "I head pop pop popping coming from Grandpa's room.
"What the dickens?" he said.
I smiled in the dark. Even at the worst of times, little things could lift your spirits."

Through Mackenzie Marianne describes that difficult 'tween' age somewhere between childhood and adulthood where Mackenzie takes on adult responsibilities but is treated like a child by those outside her family. Added to this the confusion of a 'BFF' who suddenly looks elsewhere for friendship, sibling rivalry, starting high school and a first crush and Marianne has covered a gamut of emotions and experiences that so many kids could relate to.