The Girl Who Became a Tree: A Story Told in Poems (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781913074784)

Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021 Daphne is unbearably sad and adrift. She feels the painful loss of her father acutely and seeks solace both in the security of her local library and the escape her phone screen provides by blocking out the world around her. As Daphne tries to make sense of what has happened she recalls memories of shared times and stories past, and in facing the darkness she finds a way back from the tangle of fear and confusion, to feel connected once more with her friends and family. The Girl Who Became a Tree sees Joseph Coelho deploy a wide variety of poetic forms with consummate skill in its narration of events. He seamlessly but searingly weaves together the ancient legend of Daphne, who was turned into a tree to avoid the attentions of the god Apollo, and a totally modern tale, mixing real-life and fantasy, in which a latter-day Daphne seeks her own freedom. This a heart-stoppingly imaginative story told in poems, at times bleak and even tragic, which is layered, rich and ultimately a tour de force of poetic skill and energy.

Author: Joseph Coelho
ISBN-10: 1913074781
ISBN-13: 9781913074784
Publisher: Otter-Barry Books
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2021
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.30w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2021

About the Author
Joseph Coelho is a performance poet and playwright. His debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules won the prestigious CLiPPA Poetry Award in 2015. His poetry collection Overheard in a Tower Block was published to great acclaim in 2019. Kate Milner studied illustration at Central St Martin's before completing an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University. Kate won the V&A Illustration Award 2016 and the Klaus Flugge Prize 2018 for My name is not Refugee. Her most recent book is It's a No-Money Day.