A young boy, bewitched by his father's passion to fly; a desperate craving that absorbs his every waking minute, finds himself entranced by the dream. I bought this for my son in law whose parenting of my grandchildren I am very impressed with, I loved the story and the illustrations are memorable. Grahame is a self-taught illustrator from Oxford who completed his training at Berkshire School of Art. It's a story about family, loss and ambition with many opportunities for prediction, inference and discussion.

The father is far from perfect and gets swept up in his dreams, and even forgets about his son at times. Poetic prose woven between beautifully intricate pictures makes this an irresistible, thought provoking read. It shows many emotions throughout and if you get into the book its as if you can picture it in your mind. Firstly I feel the images would generate interesting discussions in the class, around the characters’ emotions and feelings and also encouraging the students to use their imaginations when looking at the images.And why not try older children and use it as a source for a discussion - about families, about dreams and growing up, about loss, about poetry, about art. The style of illustration in this book, a mix of artwork, photographs in a collage come together to create a most unusual picture book which explores the relationship between father and son in a particularly poetic and elegant way' - Librarymice. While I enjoyed reading it myself, I have bought it to share with the children I teach in upper Key Stage 2. He has worked in illustration for twenty years and in 2011 won the Greenaway Medal for his inspiring tale of fatherhood, FARTHER . Some interesting discussion could take place about the nature of dreams- does the son continue his father's work out of sadness after his father’s death, or is the dream just so compelling that it cannot be left unfulfilled?

His first title for Templar Books, Leon and the Place Between, was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and FArTHER went on to win in 2011.Much later, the boy, now a young man, finds himself drawn once more to his father's drawings and failed experiments. Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement Writing Roots by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning. The illustrations are very effective, they're a more graphic-like design and they are very eye catching. And it uses a weird stylised font, which also makes it harder to read for younger people; for people with a reading disability; and for parents reading in lower light levels. These often thought-provoking stories look at the reactions ordinary people have to the unusual situations they find themselves in and feature a host of different illustrative styles ranging from collage to painterly Edward Hopper-esque scenes.