One Little Word
*Sunday Times: One to Watch*
This beautiful and moving picture book from Waterstones Children's Laureate, Joseph Coelho, tells the story of how a big, hairy argument gets in between two best friends.
"The argument came from nowhere.
It sat huge and bloated
in the middle of the playground
between me and my best friend."
This big hairy monster appears out of the blue one day, splitting up the best friends and growing bigger and bigger, until it starts to ruin all the children in the playground's fun.
Together, they learn how to shrink the monster until it vanishes completely, to the point where they can't even remember what it looks like!
Coelho's gentle and lyrical verse pair perfectly with Allison Colpoys' beautiful illustrations to create a book which will be treasured by young readers.
This is an ode to the power of an apology and the importance of saying sorry, and to treasuring a special bond that runs deeper than even the friends realised.
Joseph Coelho is an award-winning author and former Waterstones Children’s Laureate. He won the prestigious Carnegie Medal for Writing with The Boy Lost in the Maze and the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award with his début poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules. His picture books include If All the World Were . . ., illustrated by Allison Colpoys, which won the Independent Bookshop Week Picture Book Award and has been translated into over 10 languages, and the critically acclaimed Luna Loves series, illustrated by Fiona Lumbers, which has sold over 450,000 copies. His poetry titles also include All Poems Aloud, created for World Book Day. He is an admired performer and broadcaster – a guest poet on CBeebies and Radio 4, and presenter for the BBC’s Teach Poetry – and has written plays for Soho Theatre, Polka Theatre, the Unicorn Theatre and more. Visit him at his website: www.thepoetryofjosephcoelho.com/
Allison Colpoys grew up in the Northern Territory and now lives on Wurundjeri land in Melbourne. As an illustrator, Allison combines digital and traditional media to tell emotive stories with her expressive use of colour and pattern. Allison originally studied multimedia before succumbing to the pull of illustration and design for commercial publications and children’s books. Her heartwarming illustrations appear in numerous books for young readers, including If All The World Were… by author Joseph Coelho, published by Frances Lincoln in London. Along with numerous Australian Book Design Association awards for illustration and cover design, Allison has won the CBCA Crichton Award for Best New Talent and two Australian Book Industry Awards.