The Boy Lost In The Maze Extract Alert

An extract from a book, told in verse, where Greek myths is mixed with a modern day quest, written by the UK Children's Laureate 2022 to 2024, Joseph Coelho with illustrations by Kate Milner? HOW COULD I NOT SHARE THIS?! 

When Bee from Kaleidoscopic Tours emailed this, I had an immediate reaction and knew I had to be involved in this tour! I HAD TO BE INVOLVED!

In Ancient Greece, Theseus makes a dangerous and courageous journey to find his father, finally meeting the Minotaur in the heart of the Labyrinth. Theo, a modern-day teenage boy, finds himself on a maze-like quest to find his own father. Both boys quests mirror each other as the two step into manhood, and what true manhood really means... 

And all the while, the Minotaur waits in the darkness... 

Now, before I share the extract, I just want to thank Bee for asking and allowing me to pop onto this tour, and to the lovely people at Otter-Barry Books for sending me a copy of The Boy Lost in the Maze. At the time of writing the beginnings of this post, I am in the depth of the prose and am enjoying myself. I, also, want to point you in the right direction if you want to say hi to Joseph or Kate. You can go to thepoetryofjosephcoelho.com or tweet a quick hi at @JosephACoelho. You can find Kate at @abagforkatie. And if you want to know more about Children's Laureate info, you can go to booktrust.org.uk or @UKLaureate on Twitter. 

Now, onto the extract!!!

Book Read - My Name is Not Refugee

This has been sitting on my TBR shelves for a while. It was one of those books that, as soon as I read Nina Douglas email about it, I wanted to read it. But when I got a copy, I was a bit hesitant over how, in a picture book aimed for younger readers (aka the tiny humans in your lives) was going to tackle the issue of refugees.

The story follows a small boy who is told by his mother that they have to leave their home, because it's no longer safe. There, we follow their story as they leave, travel, wait and then find a safer place to stay and live.

This book explains the refugee crisis in a simple, very child-friendly way. Almost with an innocent outlook of a young child which shows that, while this is scary and "...a bit sad but quite exciting too" (taken from one of the earliest pages).

On each page, the book asks the reader questions - what would you take? How far could you walk? What's the strangest food you've ever eaten? - while showing images of his journey, simple but powerful.

I get that some parents and teachers won't want to read this to young people, but I think this will help some youngsters understand the very basic of the refugee crisis and should be more readily available.