FArTHER

Product Information

Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning. Not only are the illustrations whimsical and creative and beautiful, the story is wonderfully touching' - Myfavouritebooks. In the classroom, I would not use this book with kindergartners or first grade, but 2nd grade might be an acceptable age.

Themes such as war, love, death and dreams could all be discussed as a class and the book deals with each of these very sensitively which justifies the recommended reading age of 5+. A young boy, bewitched by his father’s unrelenting passion to fly; a desperate craving that absorbs his every waking minute, finds himself entranced by the dream.

The text is easy to read and the images bring the story to life, but the themes are way too complex for a young child to understand without some questioning. What first drew me to this book was the title - I immediately wondered why the illustration on the front cover depicted a father, yet the spelling clearly suggested something more. It's a story about family, loss and ambition with many opportunities for prediction, inference and discussion.

Not only are the illustrations whimsical and creative and beautiful, the story is wonderfully touching' ― Myfavouritebooks. And it uses a weird stylised font, which also makes it harder to read for younger people; for people with a reading disability; and for parents reading in lower light levels. Yet the moving relationship between father and son has a bitter sweet legacy and one that carries through to the next generation. Cleverly symbolic, underscoring immediately the conflict between reality and fantasy - a beautiful book.A son remembers his father - his dreams of being able to fly as well as spending time together until one day the war takes him away forever. I really like that this books pulls in a new theory of passes dreams back and forth and it makes for a beautifully articulated tale of a father and son. There would have to be lots of talk used in the classroom and some drama activities such as hot seating to share thoughts and ideas on the story and to develop understanding.

The illustrations really do bring this picture book to life and the size of the book make it perfect for reading to groups of children.A sumptuous and eye-catching book from the outside, which doesn't disappoint when opened to reveal a stunningly illustrated and very touching story. Grahame is a self-taught illustrator from Oxford who completed his training at Berkshire School of Art. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. He has worked in illustration for twenty years and in 2011 won the Greenaway Medal for his inspiring tale of fatherhood, FARTHER .

I think the use of colour on some pages are quite poignant such as when he goes off to war all colours are quite dark and bleak but the poppies are bright red. The book covers the ideas of dreams, families, neglect, war, ptsd, alzheimers (depending on interpretation). Grahame Baker-Smith is a self-taught award-winning illustrator from Oxford who completed his training at Berkshire School of Art. The pictures themselves are intricate and detailed images put together in a unique way using photographs and illustration which in themselves tell a story. The style of illustration in this book, a mix of artwork, photographs in a collage come together to create a most unusual picture book which explores the relationship between father and son in a particularly poetic and elegant way' - Librarymice.

It takes a few reads to appreciate how deep and complex the message is, and has lead to a great discussion about the meaning of the text (and we're adults). For many books these two points would cause me to only give a single star rating, so the fact I still rate this at 4 stars say something about how good it is. He has illustrated two other picture books for Templar: the Greenaway shortlisted Leon and the Place Between and The Winter's Child .