A librarian and an elderly person form a bond during lockdown. There are ghosts. There are problems with plumbers. There are dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight. There is a story written from the point of view of a letter. There are stars, meringues, memories in jars, a spaceman. Most of all, there are people, trying to cope with life and all its travails.
The best poetry is a form of spiritual autobiography – poems that stand as way-markers along a poet’s soul journey. Such poems tend to narrate a particular life-experience, but somehow in their telling they touch the soul of the reader.
From hairy jellybeans to sparking daydreams, Alex's poems, written for primary school age children, are both funny and thoughtful, and aim to spark familiarity and inclusion. And the stunning illustrations by Katy Riddell focus on the fun and dreamlike quality of the poems' engagement with the natural world.