Ciel illimité par Amanda Addison

We are a huge fan of Latana publishing books, they have a great range of diverse books that inspire children in the world of reading. This book is no different, the story of a little bird on its migration journey but also the journey of a young girl and her family. The illustrations were beautiful and diverse, we loved talking about the different continents the bird flew through. I would definitely recommend this book.

This is such a lovely book, with a beautiful story and moving and colourful illustrations.

The book has a dual narrative - the bird's journey during migration alongside the journey of Leila, a young refugee, both making long and challenging journeys in the hope to find a place to call home and new beginnings.

As well as being a lovely story, it also provides many points that can be discussed and explored - what it means to call a place home, migration (within nature and human migration), and friendship, and acceptance.

The story itself has almost a poetic flow to it which I felt was very engaging and held the attention of my 2-year-old. She also loved the illustrations, asking what things were and pointing out things she knew.

I would highly recommend!

This is a truly beautiful, poignant book and very apt for a lot of children. It's a story to promote empathy, compassion and friendship.

We see the similarities between the countries and children that Bird visits, their joy at the swallows flying through, their kindness and willingness to help. Though on the journey back north, Leila, a child from a desert town in the North of Africa is missing and the small details in the pictures suggest the town has been abandoned. As bird flies on back north we see Leila again as she settles into her new home in a new country.

I imagine small children will see this as a tale of following the swallow and of kindness but older children may also recognise the journey of Leila and be able to compare that to things they see in reality, whether that be refugees or emigration.

The illustrations are very soft and dreamy and one particular page that stood out to me is the image of Swallow flying over the ocean in a storm with a small boat crowded with people in the background. Such a hard tale for many people but so beautifully told and done in a way that shows children kindness is always the way.

The writing is simple and easy for my 3 & 6yo to understand. They took the story as it is, reading about the travels of Bird. They didn't read into the story of Leila but through the book, I am able to prompt discussions with them about the reasons people move to a different place and the risk some have to take.

The illustrations are beautiful and gentle. We are amazed how the humble little sparrow is created to fly such incredible journeys every year. We like that the front page is of a sparrow flying towards Africa and the last page is of the sparrow flying towards UK.

I honestly love everything about this book. A story about under estimation, friendship, resilience and our relationship with nature. With some of the loveliest illustrations, so calming and detailed, with some insightful and poignant messaging. The gorgeous detailed, descriptive words, travelling half way across the world, looking at different locations, but also showing another journey, one closer to home for us humans, both journeys filled with challenge and hardship, but thankfully both successful... This time.

Okay, that review went in a bit of a different direction than I had intended, but honestly, the beauty of this book, you can notice something different each time which is sooo perfect for our little ones. My 4 year old loves the detail in the words and we've read it lots in the last few days, My 2 year old loves pointing out the things they notice in the pictures and listening to the poetic words.

Definitely a gorgeous book for your collection