SuitabookPuppet
David Almond
- Reading
- Read it slowly enough to pause over the illustrations and wordless spreads. Let a child talk about the puppet’s unusual appearance and any sadness raised by the characters’ losses.
- Themes
- Imagination and human connection: Sylvester creates Puppet, and their time together leads towards friendship with Fleur and her mother and sharing puppet-making with a younger generation. The story presents imaginative making as a route towards companionship and renewed social connection.
- Imperfection and identity: Puppet is made from mismatched leftover materials and has an uneven gait and different numbers of fingers on his hands. Imperfection is treated as meaningful and creative rather than as a reason to reject the creation.
- Living with grief: Fleur misses her father and describes herself as capable of being happy and sad, while Sylvester’s home is associated with loss and loneliness. The book appears to acknowledge grief as something that can coexist with joy, rather than something simply removed by magical events.
- Worth knowing
- Be ready for reflective moments about an empty home, bereavement and a child missing her father. The magical puppet and the story’s warmth appear to sit alongside, rather than erase, these feelings.