Sun

"It has a fantastically glittery cover, which is a super start for any book. This story means a lot to me because it reminds me of going on adventures with my grandfather. After dinner we’d always go for a walk, just once around the commons. I remember once we went for a walk and came across a fair. He took me to the coconut shy where I failed abysmally at knocking anything down. “This story means a lot to me because it reminds me of going on adventures with my grandfather” I just think Sam’s book is gorgeous. Focusing on that relationship between the little boy and his grandfather, and having adventures that are dictated by the weather. Other books in the series are Storm , Rain and Snow . Nothing stops them from going out. This one is about the heat of a summer day. It’s just beating down. There’s a lovely repetition in this of ‘the sun beats down’. Then the story suddenly explodes into a riot of unexpectedness and adventure. They come across a galleon full of pirates and have to cross deserts. Yes—I think the duck and the penguin pop up in some of his other books too. He captures that cross-generational connection, a grandfather and a grandson and the simple pleasures of walking, taking photographs—they use a map, they don’t use Google. There’s not a mobile phone in sight. They use an old-school camera and they have a picnic basket. They’re not on their phones walking to the numerous coffee shops to have a babyccino. It’s an imaginative adventure."