Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 CLiPPA, THE AWARD FOR THE BEST CHILDREN’S POETRY BOOK
Bake a weird cake, pay a visit to the Deep, and get some inspiration for your very own word hoard! Anything is possible in the world of Cloud Soup, Kate Wakeling’s breathlessly imaginative collection of poems for children.
Quieter poems sit alongside riotously funny ones in this sequel to Moon Juice. Readers are encouraged to look more closely at clouds, water, dust and trees, and to reflect on the knottier areas of life.
Illustrated throughout by Elīna Brasliņa. Aimed at children aged 9+.
Cloud Soup is Wakeling and Brasliņa’s sequel to their CLiPPA-winning debut children’s poetry collection Moon Juice (Emma Press, 2016). Moon Juice has sold over 3000 copies and will be reissued with an updated cover design to complement Cloud Soup.
About the Illustrator:
Elīna Brasliņa studied Printmaking and Graphic Arts at the Art Academy of Latvia. Since 2014 she has illustrated more than twenty titles, including Moon Juice by Kate Wakeling, which was her international debut. She has been nominated for numerous awards in Latvia, and has won the Zelta Ābele (Golden Apple Tree) National Prize for Book Art twice. She was awarded the International Jānis Baltvilks Prize in 2017. You can visit Elīna’s website and see more of her illustrations here: www.elinabraslina.com.
Praise for Cloud Soup:
‘Both limpidly welcoming and profoundly meaningful, some of these poems, on subjects from weird cakes to good ideas, bodies, dust and Antarctica, will surely stay with their enthralled readers for ever.’ – The Guardian
‘This is a book packed to the brim with funny and imaginative poems. Quieter poems sit alongside riotously funny ones and readers are encouraged to look more closely at clouds, water, dust and trees, and to reflect on the knottier areas of life.’ – Books for Topics
‘This collection has everything – poems to get discussion flowing, poems just to love for the sound of the words, poems to inspire writing. It is the best kind of book.’ – Just Imagine
‘This new collection from the creators of the award-winning Moon Juice contains 35 inventive, quirky and humorous poems for 9-11-year-olds. Full of imagery and great to read aloud, this is a good pick for year 5&6 classrooms. This highly imaginative poetry collection is also ideal for sparking ideas for children’s writing in upper KS2.’ – School Reading List
‘She is eloquent and thoughtful and, without striving for effect or reaching for the rhetorical flourish, moves effortlessly from the humdrum to the magical, the everyday to the universal. She is restlessly curious and, quick with a joke, knows when to keep it serious. And she treats her audience seriously, never playing up or down. […] This is the poet not as show-off entertainer or all-wise seer but as an exemplar, an enviably eloquent and subtle facilitator, who seems to be saying: this is my story, what is yours?’ – Books for Keeps
‘A delightfully charming collection, covering a broad range of topics, and keeping at its core a sense of wonder in the everyday. […] Demonstrates wonderful cohesion between the poems and Brasliņa’s illustrations – there is a lightness, rather than a literalness, to the accompanying images. A skilful exhibition of complex simplicity, contained in a beautifully produced, pocket-sized package.’ – Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE)
Praise for Moon Juice:
‘This clever, funny, inspiring poetry collection, which has just won the CLiPPA, is a children’s debut by a poet for adults, full of rich ideas and roll-around-the-tongue sounds that demand to be read aloud.’ – The Sunday Times
‘Moon Juice, from the Emma Press, illustrated with spiky charm by Elīna Brasliņa, won the 2017 CLiPPA, ranges from dreamy celestial meditation (“Moon is / silver sliver. // Moon is / clipped cup / from which to sip / a first drop / of freshly-pressed / moon juice”) to comet-streaking speed – “Comet” comes with the injunction that it should be read as fast as possible, ideally in a single breath.’ – The Times Literary Supplement
‘Poems to be welcomed, savoured and read aloud.’ – Books for Keeps
