BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Book Title: Joy
Author: Corrinne Averiss
Illustrator: Isabelle Follath
Publisher: words & pictures
Publication Date: July 2018
Most Suitable For: EYFS & KS1
Joy is an inspiring picture book portraying a precious bond between a little girl and her nanna. With beautiful illustrations and a gentle narrative, this picture book is simply delightful.
Fern realises that Nanna has not seemed like her usual self recently. Mum remarks that the joy has gone out of Nanna’s life, and Fern decides to do what she can to bring it back.
Armed with suitable catching devices like a fishing net and a paper bag, Fern is determined to find joy and capture some for Nanna.
It is difficult to know where to look, but Fern thinks that joy must be like the feeling you get when you go “whooshing down a slide’’. Certain that Nanna deserves some whoosh, she sets about to find some to capture.
Searching high and low in the park, Fern successfully finds that ‘whoosh’ feeling when she encounters an adorable bouncy puppy, a giggling baby on the swing and the patterns of sparkly light dancing on the water. Finding joy was easy, but Fern is disappointed and sad to realise that she is unable to capture the feeling in her net or box to take home to Nanna.
Nonetheless, when Fern returns to Nanna and tells of her her joyful adventures in the park, Fern is delighted to see the whoosh of joy returning to Nanna’s smile too.
The illustrations strikingly portray the contrasting moods of the story to even the youngest of readers, with the ‘whoosh’ of joy being represented by swirls of bright colours sweeping across the pages complete with multi-coloured butterflies and sparkles. In contrast, the pages depicting sadness are coloured with greys and browns. The changing colours cleverly show how emotions are transient for members of all generations; the grey pages belong to Fern as well as her grandmother, as do the ‘whooshes’ of joy.
Sweet and uplifting, this empathetic picture book portrays the child-grandparent bond so charmingly and celebrates the blessings that relationship can bring to both generations.
Many thanks to the publisher for kindly sending me a review copy of this book.
Order Joy online or from your local bookshop or library.
