If All the World Were…

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Book started with little girl telling the activities she did with her granddad in different seasons and shows her love for granddad by telling how happy she was how much she enjoyed all the time of all season with her granddad. I loved the way author gave word to all those moments a ‘Kaleidoscope of memory’ and the illustration of it was really beautiful. A wonderful collection of poems that guide the reader through Super Mario World while also navigating the grief and stress of losing someone you love. The poems are whimsical, beautiful, haunting, and often highly technical. 'Top Secret Area' is a new favourite. This wonderful selection of poetry caught my eye a few months ago while I was browsing the shelves looking for something new to add to my collection. I saw the pixelated Super Mario coin on the cover and was immediately intrigued by the thought of the merging of poetry and video games (two of my loves, even though one of them is quite recent). I was not disappointed. As the child of a cancer survivor, this book definitely hit home a lot more than I thought it would, but damn did I love it. The poems, read after each other in one sitting, tell the story of a man grieving his mother in one of the most expressive mediums out there. It’s a wonderful way of showing how the loss of his mother affected him through poetry, but also by using the images from his childhood love. It puts the way people grieve into a new perspective and makes you think about the way that you yourself might experience loss.

I will myself to contain it (I thought this was SUCH a beautiful line about learning to deal with/manage grief about the death of a parent) The realities of death and loss are brought gradually to the reader’s attention, allowing their impact to be experience on many different levels, such as the loss of an imagined future, the loss of faith in the body, the loss a companion, the loss of a way of being, the loss of family. Sexton is very much in control of his work: he brings the reader with careful and exact patience to the heartbreak, so that we become part of the journey of loss. Super Mario World aids him in this: it allows the reader to share an internal landscape with the narrator of the poems, so that we we feel the grief as our own, so that when the narrator says, “this is the wrong universe among all the universes,” we are with him. What a fascinating collection to read alongside Vuong’s Time is a Mother; in both books, the authors attempt to come to terms with the loss of their mum (each from cancer), through ingenious and inventive use of the carefully chosen terms and techniques of their poetry.I would never have read this had it not been for @dylanthomasprize and that’s what’s great about reading long lists - discovering new writers and reading more widely. Sexton and I are roughly the same age; we are, by the current definition, Millenials. This is the first collection I’ve read that captures something of being born around 1990, filtering life through cultural references, knowing that we live on a dying planet, and wondering what exactly we’ve been handed by earlier generations. Using Super Mario World as a jumping-off point allows Sexton to vividly explore the ways in which we’re indebted to pop-culture and how it defines not only our conversations, but our internal landscapes. He explores the expansiveness of video games, and the joy of escapism, as well as the ways in which it limits us.

Note: I received e-ARC of this book via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Publishers and NetGalley. *** Over time, Crowther predicts that we would see the release of 450 gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere – more than doubling the amount that humans have already contributed. For a while, this effect would be offset by smaller plants and grasses. But while smaller plants capture carbon at a faster rate than trees, they also release it more rapidly. Eventually – perhaps over a few decades – these plants would no longer be able to head off the coming warming. “The timeline depends on where you are, since decomposition is much faster in the tropics than the Arctic,” D’Odorico says. “But once carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, it doesn’t matter if it’s coming from here or from there.” The book is very colorful with kid’s imagination. I loved the way child poured out her sadness through a memory in a book preserving them for forever. It was great idea to help kids to cope with the loss of their loved ones. Trees’ services to this planet range from carbon storage and soil conservation to water cycle regulation. They support natural and human food systems and provide homes for countless species – including us, through building materials. Yet we often treat trees as disposable: as something to be harvested for economic gain or as an inconvenience in the way of human development. Since our species began practicing agriculture around 12,000 years ago, we’ve cleared nearly half of the world’s estimated 5.8 trillion trees, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Nature.Allison Colpoys is an award-winning freelance book designer and illustrator. Her books include The Underwater Fancy Dress Parade and Under the Love Umbrella. If All the World is her first book for Frances Lincoln Children's Books. She lives in Melbourne, Australia. a v v interesting one ! I like this a lot I think Stephen is very talented I was actually reminded of Riviere's Kim Kardashian's Marriage a fair bit though I would say Sexton doesn't commit to the bit to quite the same level. Strong Ashbery influence here which was fantastic and one of the clearest I've found it in a poet of the brit isles besides people like Mark and Oli where again that's another route. Printed sources: - Christeson ( A Playford Assembly), 2015; p. 47. Christian ( A Playford Assembly), 2015; p. 47. Karpeles & Schofield ( A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; p. 15. Kidson ( Old English Country Dances), 1890; p. 1. Raven ( English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pp. 24 & 39. Sharp ( Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p. 27.

This poetry collection piece together a memoir of Stephen Sexton's younger years, structured around his obsession with Super Mario World. I had anticipated this to be a fun anthology, due to the brightly coloured cover and the gaming elements the synopsis hinted at. It was far from that and all the more poignant because of it.

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This list has been created from all the fantastic books that have won awards over the last year and come fully recommended for your child. In this book, the little girl keeps the memory of her grandpa alive through writing and drawing. This is such an important but beautiful message. Like the little girl, I imagine all the promises of adventure that my Granny and I planned. And that is what you call living memory. Sometimes we can't keep the people we love alive forever, but we keep them forever alive in our hearts. As the year passes, there is a growing sense of nostalgia; we learn grandad's health is failing, and at the close of the book, he has passed away and the granddaughter is adjusting to life without her grandfather. However, through treasures she finds in his room and a final gift she has assurance that his moments with her were meaningful and among his favorites, and she memorializes him by writing down the stories of his life in India as well as the adventures they shared. and now I think I / remember what I mean to say which is only that once / when all the world and love was young I saw it beautiful glowing / once in the corner of the room once I was sitting in its light” illustrated with exuberant, floral richness ... (the) focus on memories as something visible, almost tangible, ready to be preserved and collated, may offer some consolation to the bereft child who feels powerless inthe aftermathof loss.', Times Literary Supplement