Cloud Busting: Puffin Poetry

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Readers experience the narrator’s perspective in a sensory way that is hard to imagine being achieved in any other form. Encourage students to visit somewhere local to them and with which they are already very familiar – perhaps a park, shopping centre or churchyard – and describe it as Davey might, by combining imaginative use of their senses with the most creative language they can generate. I liked the poetry. I liked how the book was really different and unique. I would recommmend it to other 10 year olds What actually happened was Sam Cloud Busting alone. Davey, telling no one, slipped away and left Sam alone thinking hard.

Almost everyone gets bullied at some point in their life–so if this is happening to your child, they are not alone. Davey’s capacity to perceive the world in a multi-sensory way is one of the talents he passes to Sam. For example, favourite food becomes “…daydreams in your mouth…Or wishes down your throat…” Discuss everyday items and experiences, or use photos of familiar places, and help children develop their use of metaphor by exploring senses and linking one positive idea with another: a delicious taste is wonderful, as are star beams, so favourite food could become “star beams on your tongue”. You can’t taste a star beam; you see it – the effect is achieved by mixing sensory experiences, and it takes a great deal of imagination. As Sam finds, it’s hard at first, but improves with exercise. Connecting the curriculum This is a fantastic story about friendship and how fractuous it can be as peer pressure begins to become a larger part of a child's life, all told in various poetry styles. Although the subject matter is a bit gloomy, ultimately it is a story with a positive message and you will feel optimistic when you finish the book. Last but not least, I would like to end this book review with a poem which I have written by myself: Sam changes dramatically through the book. Is it for the better? He used to fit in; now he doesn’t: what does he have instead? Consider how people change; how might you change, in the next few years?

Davey’s capacity to perceive the world in a multi-sensory way is one of the talents he passes to Sam. For example, favourite food becomes “…daydreams in your mouth…Or wishes down your throat…” Discuss everyday items and experiences, or use photos of familiar places, and help children develop their use of metaphor by exploring senses and linking one positive idea with another: a delicious taste is wonderful, as are star beams, so favourite food could become “star beams on your tongue”. You can’t taste a star beam; you see it – the effect is achieved by mixing sensory experiences, and it takes a great deal of imagination. As Sam finds, it’s hard at first, but improves with exercise. This book is amazing I read it at school in guided reading I reccomend it to anyone who is ready to read chapter books it is not hard to read at all

In their independent activities, children will explore how and why the characters of Davey and Sam changed throughout the story. In the alternative activity, children are invited to take part in a whole-class discussion about conformity.The central themes of bullying, friendship and difference are not so unusual, but the remarkable use of poetic forms, perfectly matched to the mood of each story section, has a profound effect.

Despite his Mum's insistence, Sam doesn't want to be friends with Davey. He thinks Davey's a first class, grade A, total moron. But when the two boys are thrown together a bond is formed between them. Sam is still embarrassed to be seen with Davey, but little by little he has to admit, when it's just the two of them, Davey is a lot of fun. But then something terrible happens . . .An interesting story told in the form of poetry homework by Sam about his friendship with Davey and Alex. He also describes a nasty incident in the poem too which really affected the friendships. Musing on the title of the book itself will rouse children’s imaginations: What is Cloud Busting? Piecing together all clues from the cover and blurb, children are likely to infer the meaning of the phrase in physical terms, and may also be able to offer an hypothesis as to its metaphorical meaning – its hint at the opposing themes of conformity and imagination; friendship versus bullying. Davey is the new boy in class and Sam can't stand him. He thinks Davey is a Grade A moron. But when the two are thrown together Sam discovers that Davey's eccentric way of looking at the world makes life a lot more fun. Until the day something terrible happens... Davey and Sam should have gone to the park to go Cloud Busting together and become best friends again, this time not in secret.