Our Tower

Product Information

A truly beautiful and special text that is a perfect example of words and pictures working together to create a deep and lasting impression on readers young and old. Securing the Design team is just the start of this project, with urgent fundraising now needed to ensure vital conservation work to the building and landscape takes place, to ensure today’s visitors and future generations can continue to explore and enjoy this iconic Bath landmark. 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.

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 . Drawn from Coelho’s own experience growing up in a high-rise, this is a celebration and reclaiming of them as places full of power and magic. This is a three-week Writing Root for Our Towerby Joseph Coelho and Richard Johnson. The sequence of learning begins with a walk to the local park. Children will be sound collectors and record all the interesting sounds they hear on their way to and in the park. They will go on to analyse the language and word choices used in the text as well as discussing the illustrations. To create their own descriptions and poems, children will use Joseph Coelho’s word choices and phrases to inspire their own writing. They will go on to practise key narrative skills such as creating dialogue, using conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs to build cohesion in their writing. Finally, children use the narrative structure of this poem to create their own fantasy narrative, using a circular planning format. Synopsis of Text: But their real discovery is the gift of the old man of the tree which enables them to see that magic exists in the real world too, when we do not forget our connections to nature and can see and appreciate the beauty of community. 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.

What creatures can the kids find lurking in their garden or on a walk with their family? Print out the sheet above, and get them to take it on a bug hunt with them. How many of them can they spot? When they go out next time, can they spot more, or less? 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. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. 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. What colour are the kids going to choose for the Tree-Grown man? How many colours are they going to use?

Mae tri phlentyn sy'n byw mewn tŵr llwyd uchel yn clywed cân coeden yn galw arnyn nhw. Maen nhw'n cropian allan o'r tŵr, heibio i'r ceir a'r polion lampau, i'r goedwig sy'n ffinio â'r stad. Yno, mewn coeden, maen nhw'n cyfarfod â dyn wedi tyfu mewn coeden sy'n rhoi carreg hud iddyn nhw. Trwy'r twll yn y garreg maen nhw'n gweld eu tŵr mewn gwedd newydd. Yn lle ffenestri, mae llygaid cariadus, ceg ydy'r lifft ac eiliau ydy'r balconïau. 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: After speaking with Joseph about the adventures he had growing up in Roehampton, near Richmond Park, I did some visual research into the area and Joseph sent me some photographs. I really wanted to try and create a visual adventure that would complement Joseph’s poem, blending the mundane, the dark and dangerous with the fantastic and celebratory. Visual research is really important to undertake in any project, especially for ‘Our Tower’, and the methods change from project to project. I think a lot of Joseph’s work is autobiographical, so it was important to me that I got a sense of Joseph’s personal story in the imagery. Whilst some of the details had to become lost in the finished artwork—for commercial purposes—I hope the essence of some of that initial research influenced the entire project. I also recorded myself reading the story and went for a long walk into the countryside. As I listened to the words on repeat, I used the countryside to inspire visual stories for the semi-imaginary underground world where the children play. I only started to draw when I got home." Our Tower is about togetherness and kindness within the community. Why not get the kids to write a story about when someone has been kind to you or your family? Beautiful illustrations complement the poetic narrative, creating an enchanting story which children and adults alike will fall in love with.Wedi'i ysgrifennu mewn sigl odledig telynegol, mae hwn yn ddathliad o bawb sy'n byw mewn blociau o fflatiau ac ar stadau. 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. Stenning & Co – who are located in Bath – are led by Quantity Surveyor Adrian Stenning. Experts and specialists in building conservation work, Adrian has worked extensively with organisations including the Landmark Trust and the National Trust. Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.