I would never have read this had it not been for @dylanthomasprize and that’s what’s great about reading long lists - discovering new writers and reading more widely. Vanilla Secret 2 (flax and poppy and sloe berries reaching out of the frozen earth extending a frail hand as if to say I'm here it was lonely) Without further ado, here is a picture of the woman who helped raise me, instill my love for reading and help me become the person I am today. I miss you so, so much Granny. I just felt that I needed to keep her memory alive, just like this little girl did.

Allison Colpoys is an award-winning freelance book designer and illustrator. Her books include The Underwater Fancy Dress Parade and Under the Love Umbrella. If All the World is her first book for Frances Lincoln Children's Books. She lives in Melbourne, Australia. The whole collection is tightly tied to one idea: the death of Stephen Sexton’s mother, framed by his obsession with Super Mario World. And that idea works. It works incredibly well, somehow never feeling repetitive. I really loved this collection. I read a review which intrigued me because the book is about the poet's memories of the years when as a teenager he played Super Mario World whilst his mother was going through treatment for cancer. It's dense, allusive, it sounds beautiful, and it demands reading and re-reading. I can see it would not be every person's cup of tea, but I found it very beautiful and heartbreaking. As a gamer (so so sorry), this didn’t in any way chime with my own experiences of ecstasy or melancholy or even mindless escape into the digital world – it felt like a series of cryptic level synopses in clunky prose. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.

I apologise. This review comes from the heart and not the mind. Please bear with me - this book has tugged at my heartstrings and stabbed me straight through. In Mad Max: Fury Road, Charlize Theron’s Furiosa strives to return to “the Green Place” – a tree-filled oasis in the otherwise lifeless wasteland that the Earth has become. When Furiosa arrives at the sacred spot, however, she finds only skeletal trunks and sprawling dunes. She screams in anguish. Without trees, all hope seems lost.

Lines like “to suffer suffer everywhere and not a moment stop to think” make me stop reading mid-poem. Idk if it’s because they seem desperate to reach for something deep, or because they read like they were written in 5 seconds and not touched by an editor. “I will have missed you for so long I will have / missed you” is so painfully earnest it just rings false. It isn’t convincing. And I think it knows it isn’t convincing, isn’t fully communicating the depth of the author’s grief, and so it overcompensates, but this only makes its incredibility further amplified. Let me just start with how horrible a world without trees would be – they are irreplaceable,” says Isabel Rosa, a lecturer in environmental data and analysis at Bangor University in Wales. “If we get rid of all the trees, we will live [on] a planet that might not actually be able to sustain us anymore.” A wonderful collection of poems that guide the reader through Super Mario World while also navigating the grief and stress of losing someone you love. The poems are whimsical, beautiful, haunting, and often highly technical. 'Top Secret Area' is a new favourite. What a fascinating collection to read alongside Vuong’s Time is a Mother; in both books, the authors attempt to come to terms with the loss of their mum (each from cancer), through ingenious and inventive use of the carefully chosen terms and techniques of their poetry.If All the World Were... is a beautiful picture book focusing on the close relationship a granddaughter has with her grandfather. Through the change of seasons, we witness the special times they shared, as well as wishes the granddaughter has ("If all the world were springtime, I would replant my grandad's birthdays so that he would never get old"). Too often though, I didn't really see much of the game being reflected in the poems or get any sense of why specific elements of the game were important to the author. Having a poem dedicated to each level just seems to push the concept too far. From my own experience, particular games really do summon up strong memories and emotions from the time when I originally played them, but that doesn't mean that every single level holds a rich vein of meaning. Unconventional subject matter for the very young is presented with gentle humour and a sense of great joy You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side.

This is such a sweet gentle book about all the memories the little girl has of her grandfather, throughout the year, and how much she loved him, and how sad she is that she can not have those walks with him. Shifters report feeling more connected to the world and less focussed on their individual identity. Pixabay/PexelsAs the year passes, there is a growing sense of nostalgia; we learn grandad's health is failing, and at the close of the book, he has passed away and the granddaughter is adjusting to life without her grandfather. However, through treasures she finds in his room and a final gift she has assurance that his moments with her were meaningful and among his favorites, and she memorializes him by writing down the stories of his life in India as well as the adventures they shared.

While it took me a while to grasp the way that Sexton writes, I was soon completely enamoured and hooked by his writing and sped through the whole of the book on a short one-hour flight from Glasgow to London. The poems within the book each take their title from a different world or setting within the Super Mario Universe such as Yoshi’s Island. Each poem takes us through the journey of Sexton growing up and delving into the world of video games as a way of escaping the illness that is taking his mother’s body.If All the World Were... is a beautifully illustrated poem about a girl's relationship with her grandfather, encompassing both her joy as she spends time with him, and her sadness at his eventual passing. I will myself to contain it (I thought this was SUCH a beautiful line about learning to deal with/manage grief about the death of a parent) My Granny and I spoke of the moon and the stars often. We spoke of birds, of life and of love. We laughed and cried together. Thoughts: Beautiful words and illustrations in regard to the topic of death of a grandparent. Just ..thanks for the punch in the face with all the emotion.