by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kate Milner. Otter-Barry Books £6.99 9781910959589.  Shortlisted for the CLiPPA 2018

Photo: Michael Thorn

This second solo collection from Joseph Coelho, Overheard in a Tower Block, explores further some of the themes from Werewolf Club Rules (which won the CLiPPA in 2015).  More suited to an older reader than that first collection, this is an extraordinarily powerful and moving book.  Each poem offers us glimpses into the life of the main character as he grows, over the course of the collection, from young boy through adolescence to adulthood.  The ingenious threading of fantasy, story, myth and magic throughout the poems only illuminates further the challenges and hardships of this young man’s life, but ultimately concludes in moments of optimism, joy and possibility.