Umbrella by Elena Arevalo Melville

As you know, if you regularly read my blog or follow me on Twitter, it was #BrewEdFindYourVoice a few weeks ago. Amongst the speakers was Richard Simpson (otherwise known as @richreadalot) and he talked about Sharing Kindness Ripples via Stories (see the home page of the website to watch this, if you haven't seen it yet).

At the end of his presentation, Rich’s daughter appeared and I asked her which her favourite book was out of all the ones her Daddy had recommended and she said ‘Umbrella’. A few days later I received a lovely email from Scallywag Press (the publishers of Umbrella) and this week I received a copy of the book in the post – a gift from them. I was so touched by their kindness and read the book on Friday to my class.

As you will know, if you heard Rich speak, the book is about a little girl called Clara who is in a park at the beginning of the book and feeling incredibly lonely. She spots an umbrella and places it gently on a bench, at which point the umbrella speaks and tells Clara to look inside her,

Anything is Possible

the umbrella declares.

As the story unfolds, kindness is sprinkled everywhere by the magical umbrella. An elephant picks apples, a Butterfly Band brings joy and a fox sees the error of his ways.

When I read the book to my class they clapped at the end and declared that they absolutely loved ‘Umbrella’. ‘Why?’ I enquired.

Because it is really nice to hear that anything is possible and it is a book all about kindness!

We went on to discuss what they would like to achieve and next week we will re-visit the story and find out what wishes they would like granted by the umbrella.

Scallywag Press have some fantastic resources to accompany the text and I would highly recommend watching the video of the author, Elena Arevalo Melville, reading the book. Her passion and love of writing shines through.

https://www.scallywagpress.com/resources.html

Thank you again Scallywag Press and happy reading everyone!