SuitabookOur Tower
Joseph Coelho & Richard Johnson
- Reading
- Read the illustrations closely alongside the rhyming text. Before the ending, invite predictions about the tree and the children’s return; afterwards, compare the visual and emotional treatment of home in both parts.
- Themes
- Seeing home differently: The children initially feel dissatisfied with the concrete surroundings, then return with a new appreciation of their tower-block community and its life, love and growth. The story clearly values attentive, appreciative ways of seeing one’s home and neighbours, while still acknowledging the children’s earlier dissatisfaction.
- Nature and the built environment: The children seek a distant tree after becoming tired of concrete, roads and paths, and discover an extraordinary natural world within it. The built environment is initially shown as dreary, but the return home complicates that contrast by revealing value and life within the tower community.
- Magic and transformation: A magical destination within a tree and an encounter with a powerful old man alter how the children understand their journey and home. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The magical journey includes a strange old man with magical powers and a gifted amulet. If those elements feel unsettling, pause to explore what seems mysterious rather than assuming the story intends danger.