

I came across this book whilst working in a Reception class in school. Firstly by throwing his shoe, and yes, that does get stuck too, he comes up with many other strange and wonderful objects to throw up there! The story follows Floyd in his not-so-logical thinking around how to get the kite down. Stuck is a hilarious little story about a boy, Floyd, who gets his kite stuck up in a tree. It's not for my daughter, or a friend's nephew. I have met countless adults that collect picture books for themselves, and they are growing in confidence about openly admitting this in a book-signing queue.

Because as he says I don't believe they are just for children. Strangely the day after reading I picked up the Guardian and there was an article by Jeffers about the debt he owes to Maurice Sendak (that's why the boy in his first picture books has a stripey jumper, an homage to his favourite monster in Where the Wild Things Are) and also how his books are not children's books, but simply picture books. In this one a boy gets his kite stuck up a tree and throws a shoe to dislodge, but the shoe gets stuck as well, so he throws other things up and they all get stuck, so then he fetches a ladder, and. I have to say they are just about perfect. This time it was two Oliver Jeffers' books (this one and The Incredible Book Eating Boy).

Clare (my wife) is an infant teacher, but she's recently been tasked with setting up and stocking the library, so she occasionally brings home books to show me.
