![]() Instead, he lashes out at school, continuing the cycle of violence, before a calming friend teaches him “you can’t fly angry”. In Fly Boy (Simon & Schuster, 25 May) he uses minimal lyrical prose to present a young child who, overwhelmed by shouting and chaos at home, longs to fly away. Bola has a background in youth work and a belief that “we need to redefine what manhood means”. Meanwhile, Fly Boy, the children’s debut from novelist and poet JJ Bola, seems a natural extension of his previous writing for adults on issues including masculinity, home and identity. The approaching storm depicted as a thundering mass of galloping horses and a warrior raining down silver arrows is particularly striking. Longer than the average picture book, Iron Robin combines everyday childhood themes with a pinch of fantasy, all brilliantly visualised by Jones’s expressive artwork. Months pass, but when a storm hits the school he ends up saving the day. ![]() Named Iron Robin, the bird manages to survive the fiery tongue of Oliver’s soft toy Draggi before being thrown on to the school roof and lost by some older kids. When Oliver finds a little rusty bundle in a field one day, his mum cleans it off, and the metal bird they discover starts slowly coming to life. ![]() ![]() Thankfully, Tremain’s debut is first class. ![]() ‘A pinch of fantasy’: Iron Robin by Rose Tremain. ![]()
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