Our Tower

Product Information

Beautiful illustrations complement the poetic narrative, creating an enchanting story which children and adults alike will fall in love with. Inspired by memories, folklore and a lifetime of reading and imagining, Coelho’s lyrical text draws us in and evokes a personal response. Rhythms and sounds are explored, but it’s the story that drives this book. Take-away messages are clearly stated (which may be reassuring for readers who are less familiar with poetry) but plenty of room is left throughout for curiosity and dreaming.

Three children living in the building travel to a strange, magical world inside a tree and meet an old man with supernatural powers… only to realize that the magic they’d been looking for had been in the building all that time, in the form of community and connection. We are giving away blind bags to everyone that is a member on a monthly basis, starting next month. So anyone that is a member on the 6th April, 2023 at 11.59pm, joining anytime in March and up to that date, will get TWO free blind bags of sensory fun! Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. This month, we are adding something AWESOME to the club for every single person we can within the club (based in the UK). Finding the tree they have longed to see reveals a secret world of magic. Tumbling deep inside, they find “a world deeper than anything Our Tower has ever seen.” But the most significant discovery is the tree-grown man living within, who opens their eyes to the true magic. With his words, the children see that magic is everywhere, including in their tower. A tower full of love and community.From award-winning children’s poet Joseph Coelho comes this enchanting story of three kids looking for adventure in their building. Richard Johnson has created moments of real magic and wonder with his atmospheric illustrations in blue, green, brown, and grey hues highlighting the transitions between the urban, fantastic and natural environments. The imagery has been cleverly displayed as full spreads alongside vignettes with scenes intertwined with the text giving this book a unique contemporary feel. Note must also be paid to the incredible behind the scenes research work carried out to make the illustrations as authentic as possible, Richard ensured that architectural details were as accurate as possible as were references to specific architectural details, and public statues mentioned in Joseph’s story making this an unforgettable cinematic reading experience. Working closely at all stages of the book, when he saw Richard's roughs Joseph said... We are thrilled to be working in partnership with the team at Discoverin Stratford London, who are the perfect venue for the launch of this book. They are hosting an amazing interactive event with Richard and Joseph as well as showcasing of some of his incredible illustrations from the book in the Discover Café. You can find out more about this special event HERE . The Tower project is made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery Players. With thanks also to Historic Houses Foundation, Art Fund Support, Garfield Weston, Historic England, Leche Trust, Pilgrim Trust, and SWMDP. Richard put a huge amount of effort into researching the imagery mentioned in the poem and recreating it in the illustrations, we asked him about his researchprocess and how it works differently on different projects.

The story follows three children who leave their grey dismal tower in search of the marvellous green tree they can see from their windows. As they move through the wood gradually more colour seeps into the images and when they find their tree and discover an entrance to a magical underground world the palette changes entirely to magical purples and blues and the lovely lyrical text becomes joyously rhyming too.This magical story, written by influential and award-winning children’s author and poet Joseph Coelho, will show children how to appreciate the things they have. The poetic narrative accompanied by enchanting illustrations will draw children into a fantastical world and provide a springboard for their own lyrical writing. Touching on themes of conservation and nature, links can also be drawn with geography and science and the book will act as a portal into the poetical world of this significant author. Links and themes: A deeply personal story written by the award-winning poet Joseph Coelho, drawn from his own experience growing up in a high-rise and looking for adventure. Beautiful illustrations complement the poetic narrative, creating an enchanting story which children and adults alike will fall in love with. Whilst we have achieved our fundraising target, ongoing donations will increase the amount of work we can do, support a programme of activity beyond the project and ensure the resilience of our organisation.