Joseph Coelho is a performance poet and playwright. His plays have received special note from The Verity Bargate Award and The Bruntwood Playwriting Competition. He has written plays for young people for Theatre Royal York, Pied Piper, Polka and The Unicorn Theatres. Joseph has been a guest poet on Radio 4’s Front Row and performed poems for Channel 4 and CBeebies Radio. His debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules is published by Frances Lincoln and won the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award 2015. Joseph lives in Kent, by the sea.
Kate Milner studied illustration at Central St Martin's, and is an MA student in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin. Her illustrations and prints have been shown in London galleries and national touring exhibitions.
"A collection that will excite, intrigue and stretch teenagers and
that offers a lot of scope for classroom discussion."
*IBBY Link*
"This slim volume of more than four dozen poems of varying lengths
charts the narrator's course from childhood in low-income urban
housing to adolescence to young adulthood and fatherhood.The
unnamed narrator personifies the unforgiving public-housing tower
block as a "zombie" hungry for human lives and memories. He dodges
a bully in "Smashing Snails in the Rain" and overhears an
"Argument": "The monster / With a roar made up of shouts," whose
"jaws snap / Like slamming doors," and whose "claws clatter / Like
kitchen drawers." His father gives him the perfect pair of red
sneakers in "Trainers." These shoes return many times across the
collection, acting as a possible symbol of the boy's hero worship
of his often absent father. As the boy enters his teens, he goes
from confident to awkward to embracing the changes his body
experiences in "Man…I Had It Made." In later poems, he has his
first kiss, gets exam results, and leaves home for the first time.
He becomes a father, "whose heart thumps solely for his /
daughter." Poetic forms vary, with some rhyming and others not.
Readers may have difficulty understanding the trilogy of
sophisticated poems based on the myth of Prometheus. Race is not
mentioned, and the flat, unemotional black-and-white sketches
provide few clues.It may take readers a few rounds to fully
appreciate and understand the loose, unassumingly sophisticated
narrative that joins the poems."
*Kirkus Reviews*
"Rich with metaphor and secret meaning, his poetry is deeply
welcoming, and his sensibility is both mythic and urban."
*Guardian - Fresh Voices: 50 Writers You Should Read Now*
"A very clever and poetic mood [is] conveyed by these pages."
*BookBag*
"Joseph Coelho is a notable newcomer, touching on subjects ranging
from the hungry mouth of a communal chute bin, devouring the
disappointments of its residents, to mythical transgressions."
*Times Literary Supplement*
"[The author] has surpassed himself with this breathtaking
collection of poems for older children. Kate Milner's black and
white illustrations perfectly enhance the narrative. This
collection will stay with you always."
*CLPE Books of the Year*
"A stunning – and stunningly illustrated by Kate Milner – poetry
collection. You can dip in and out of it (‘City Kids’ is my current
favourite) but there is also a narrative vein running through it.
It is powerful and atmospheric, and has true ‘crossover’
appeal."
*Achuka Best Books of the Year*
"Ambitious in theme, the everyday experiences of an urban childhood
are made extraordinary here through astute observation and
dexterity of word play...Each poem offers a childlike vantage
point, but collated together there are profound comments about the
nature of late childhood, its shift towards adulthood,
responsibility and the continuing role it exerts in determining and
defining our lives.
*Achuka Best Books of the Year*
"Finally, something slightly different. I think publishers and
bookshops are missing a trick with poetry. They seem to stock
poetry collections for younger children and adult poetry from the
historical to the contemporary. Where is the poetry for young
adults? Beyond the bookshops, there is a dynamic and diverse spoken
word scene, young people articulating their lives and
experiences through rhythm, rhyme, lyricism. These are poems
about childhood belonging, separated families and the stories we
build when there are gaps we can’t know. My teenage daughter and I
have read them together. "
*Waterstones*
"Children’s poetry is booming and Joseph Coelho’s Overheard in a
Tower Block skilfully describes deeply felt experiences and
personal observations so that we can all share the emotions."
*Books for Keeps Book of the Year*
"A wonderful collection of poems."
*Carousel*
"Growing up on an urban estate in a tower block is not a
comfortable experience. Joseph Coelho’s poems are not comfortable.
They are sharp, disconcerting, intelligent. They are also quite
often humorous. They pinpoint experiences, emotions, the immediate,
as he charts living in this world. Running through all the poems is
a young boy’s sense of dislocation in a fractured
family. There are recollections of school, of friendships, of
holidays, of a first kiss. These are poems to explore, to discover
and to savour because they will not always reveal their secrets
immediately – but they are well worth it. The experience is
enhanced by Kate Milner’s clever vignettes that mirror the
awkwardness, the curiosity and vigour of the boy. Congratulations
to Otter-Barry Books for bringing us this collection."
*Books for Keeps Editor's Choice & 5 Star Review*
"Every poem in this anthology gives the reader pause for thought:
whether it's an idea to contemplate; an image that lingers or word
play that delights, Coelho's touch is totally assured."
*Reading Zone 5 star review*
"Joseph Coelho brings the city to life through the eyes of a child
in his moving collection of poems. The poems deal sensitively with
a range of themes, from broken families and bullying to the power
of stories to take you beyond the city to another world. An
accessible and relevant book of poems to accompany children as they
grow up."
*Scotsman*
"Recounting the childhood of a child living in a city tower block,
many of these poems are sad or angry and bristle with an edginess
that young teens may find refreshing when compared to other poetry
aimed at them. The content is current, personal, moving and needs
saying."
*Book Trust Best Books for August*
"Ingenious...Kate Milner's extraordinary line drawings express the
underlying strangeness."
*Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week*
"Award-winning poet Joseph Coelho's astonishing new collection is a
powerful and moving poetic narrative about growing up in the city,
excellently set off by Kate Milner's black and white drawings which
capture the spirit of the poetry."
*Parents in Touch*
"Joseph's verses, illustrated beautifully by Kate Milner, really
capture how your childhood imagination adapts and fits itself
around your (sometimes grim) surroundings. A superb slice of urban
life, depicted from many different points of view."
*Read It, Daddy*
"So rich...so many lines that make you pause and stop...so
powerful...took my breath away."
*Down the Rabbit Hole*
"An exciting and edgy collection - contemporary poems of family,
friendship and school laced with myth and magic."
*The Bookseller*
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