And I Climbed And I Climbed

Written by Stephen Lightbown

Illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin

Publication date: September 2023
Ages: 7+ years
Format: Paperback / 198 x 129 mm / 96 pages
ISBN: 978-1-912745-29-6
Rights available: World
UK retail price: £8.99

Cosmo is a young boy whose life has been changed forever after falling out of the tree he loved to climb. Now, Cosmo is disabled and uses a wheelchair. And now, Cosmo wants to have a conversation with the tree.

In this outstanding debut collection for children, Stephen Lightbown draws on his own personal experiences as a wheelchair user, while creating a unique and utterly engaging character in Cosmo. Written in Cosmo’s voice and peppered with contributions from the boy’s family, these poems take the reader on a journey of challenges, questions, hurts, explorations and triumphs. Cosmo is endlessly open and curious, and his observations and reflections are at once perceptive, raw, hilarious, confronting and enchanting.

How can Cosmo come to terms with, and adapt to, this seismic change in his life? Is his life as he knew it gone? Could there be new possibilities ahead, and also new abilities that Cosmo doesn't yet know he possesses? And will the tree ever reply to his number one question: why?

Resources & extras

Discover more about why Stephen wrote the book in his blog ‘And I Climbed, And I Climbed’: Stephen Lightbown explores a boy’s experiences of disability in this profoundly authentic new poetry collection

Read Stephen’s blog for the Children’s Poetry Summit, on telling Cosmo’s story : Making the Page Feel Real

Watch Stephen introducing the book and reading some poems in the video below.

Reviews

“Book of the month. A unique collection of poems that are honest, painful and thought-provoking. They are also tinged with humour and hope. Most importantly, they are authentic – based as they are on the author’s own childhood experience of a life-changing accident. This is an important and beautifully affecting book.”

BookTrust

“Deeply poignant and captivating, these poems are really special. Raw emotion, courage, determination and resilience mix with fear, anger, curiosity and pain in the poems which invoke empathy, compassion and understanding. A remarkable and fantastic collection - essential reading.”

Sue Wiltshire, ThoughTheBookshelf.com

“I hope this book gets into schools as it is one that breaks new grounds. Truthful, powerful and well crafted. Sad but also joyful. An important volume for every year 5/6 class. ”

Pie Corbett

“A fine example of outstanding writing where individual elements build into a remarkable whole. The thoughts and emotions expressed are totally and affectingly convincing. Stephen Lightbrown’s message and his skilful use of the medium complement each other powerfully. This would be a most valuable book in any KS2 classroom… it is a work of very high quality as well as being of considerable value in terms of  inclusion and empathy.” 

Gordon Askew

“I really enjoyed the truth of these poems. This is in no way a sad book – although it’s an exploration in Cosmo’s beautifully written voice of coming to terms, which doesn’t shy away from addressing frustration, jealousy, or anger – it’s full of humour, verisimilitude, and hope. A book every child should read. 5 Stars.”

Liz Brownlee, PoetryRoundabout.com

By the same illustrator