The cloudspotter

Tom McLaughlin
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781408854969
RRP: $22.99

Franklin spots clouds. Though it’s lonely Franklin brightens up his day by imagining shapes in the clouds and making up adventures. Young readers will identify effortlessly with Franklin’s vivid imagination. Enter an observer that seems fascinated by Franklin’s behaviour and ultimately by Franklin himself. Not used to such attention, Franklin loads the intruder into a balloon basket, to float him away; but balloons have a habit of returning to ground. Franklin realises that things done together are often more enjoyable. The softly coloured, spare illustrations have a dramatic impact on readers through the shapes defining Franklin’s adventures.