Book Review: Ten Word Tiny Tales to Inspire and Unsettle by Joseph Coelho

Ten Word Tiny Tales to Inspire and Unsettle
by Joseph Coelho (jP Coelho)

The 2022-2024 United Kingdom Children’s Laureate, Joseph Coelho, wrote twenty 10-word mini-stories in this picture book and had illustrator friends come up with their artistic idea of what he was writing. Some came up with scary or weird drawings, but many of the stories could also have been the beginning of cool adventures. Either way, a story in 10-words is a fascinating idea.

 

He encourages you to think of your own 10-word stories and offers creative suggestions to get yourself there. His sample story was “He’s in every photo of me, in the shadows smiling” a 10-word story that definitely has Twilight Zone shadings. I also liked “The Venus Flytrap keeps edging closer to Grandma’s favorite chair” (maybe Grandma had recently died and the flytrap wanted a close connection to something of hers). Definitely eerie – “We buried her on Wednesday, again on Thursday, and Friday.”

 

At the end of the book, he offers suggestions on how to lengthen your 10-word story if you wish.

 

This was an interesting collection of 10-word tales. Even though this is a picture book, I would aim this toward the 1st-5th grade age group.

 

Following the author’s suggestion, I wrote my own 10-word story – “Alone in the dark house, I heard a muffled sneeze.”

 

( publisher’s official Ten Word Tiny Tales web site ) | ( official www.thepoetryofjosephcoelho.com web site )

Read Scott C’s review of It All Changed In An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs From Authors Famous and Obscure in the July 2010 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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