“That night my dreams are full of skies.”
No, YOU’VE got something in your eye.
From the opening page of Budgie you can just tell that this is written by a poet, and not just any poet of course but Joseph Coelho. The gentle yet confident touch with words brings us straight into the life of Miles, his family, Mr Buxton and of course Pippin/Lemon.
Coelho takes on a wonderful journey of discovery as Miles discovers a budgie in the trees below his building. He takes care of the budgie, but the budgie dies after just one day and one night. Written in the first person I love how Coelho handles Miles’s grief in a very real manner and doesn’t gloss over it. The beautiful twist is discovering the budgie actually belonged to Mr Buxton – and so a wonderful scene unfolds in which a great connection is made between Mr Buxton and Miles, encouraging Miles to rethink his previous misconception of Mr Buxton as an angry old man who found children annoying.
How have I got this far in the review and not yet mentioned David Barrow’s illustrations?! Well, I wanted to give them pleeeeeenty of space. Gorgeous, sumptuous full colour illustrations help build atmosphere, setting and character into this wonderful story.
Charming and heartfelt – filled with emotions and wonder.
Another great quality read from Barrington Stoke.
