{"id":20421,"date":"2023-02-13T06:09:51","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T06:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksfortopics.com\/?p=20421"},"modified":"2023-02-13T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T10:44:37","slug":"empathy-boosting-books-our-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booksfortopics.com\/empathy-boosting-books-our-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"Empathy-Boosting Books: Our Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The team at Empathy Lab invited us to choose one of the titles in the collection to showcase as a brilliant empathy-boosting recommendation. We’ve selected Our Tower<\/a> by Joseph Coelho &\u00a0Richard Johnson, which was chosen by our Review Panel as one of our Books of the Month<\/a> back in December.<\/p>\n Our Tower tells the story of three children living in a tower block. Viewing their environment as \u201cconcrete and grey\u201d, they decide to seek out the glimpse of green they can see high up from their window.<\/p>\n Finding the tree they have longed to see reveals a secret world of magic. Tumbling deep inside, they find \u201ca world deeper than anything Our Tower has ever seen.\u201d But the most significant discovery is the tree-grown man living within, who opens their eyes to the true magic. With his words, the children see that magic is everywhere, including in their tower. A tower full of love and community.<\/p>\n This is a beautiful story inspired by author Joseph Coelho\u2019s own experience of growing up in a tower block and the author’s real-life experiences weave a deep element of empathy through the story, offering insight into the literal highs and lows of an urban upbringing.<\/p>\n The new Children\u2019s Laureate brilliantly showcases the diversity and the incredible sense of community that living in a tower block is able to provide, showing how the real community is so much more magical than the boring, hard and grey high-rise flats that appear to dominate urban skylines. The tale brings a message about urbanisation, where there\u2019s a perceived distinction between countryside and urban spaces, yet this reminds us that nature is all around us, wherever we live, and everyone should have access to it.<\/p>\n