Book Review by Paul Tobin

Many thanks to Paul Tobin, poet and author, who has written a review of Under The Foutain in his Blog "Magpie Bridge."



Monday, 31 October 2011

UNDER THE FOUNTAIN

I wanted to share with you an interesting book I happened to come across recently. It’s called Under the Fountain and it is written by Kathy Lovell and charmingly illustrated by Jane Meech. Essentially it is the story of two boys, Jake and George, who discover under the fountain in their local swimming pool a secret passage to the a sea cave where they meet two seals. Later in the story they are able to rescue the seals and save their lives. There is also a second plot that describes Jake’s treatment for leukaemia.
Why did it capture my imagination? Well for two reasons, basically it is a page turner; once I started I wanted to know what happens to the characters. Secondly, in a past life I was a social worker, and books like this are immeasurably useful for helping children make sense of their illness and the treatment process. When I was working for Social Services it was almost impossible to find books that related to the situations people found themselves in, and a book like this is very welcome.
I must just say a word about the illustrations, I think that Jane Meech has captured both the children and the seals. The artwork is excellent, as I hope you can see from the examples on this post.









Posted by Paul Tobin at Monday, October 31, 2011 elated to the situations people found themselves in, and a book like this is very welcome.

Offer of a lino cut print for a silent auction at the Tea party

Many thanks to Alison Wilson, artist, who has donated a beautiful lino cut print of two seahorses as a fundraiser for the tea party. For this we are going to do a silent auction as an additional attraction at the event.

Meeting for Tea Party at Orley House, 26th of July. 11

Our committee has now grown to Valerie, Jennie, Anthony, Jean and I. We have made final decisions on who will put up posters and where; where to ask for donations for the raffle, where to get additional crockery and tables and chairs; our menu and press releases. We have had an offer of a classical guitarist, Barrie to play for half an hour and also hope to get a couple of pianists to entertain our guests.

19th of July, 2011 Posters designed for Tea Party at Orley House In aid of Under The Fountain, in support of CLIC-Sargent

30th of April, News Report on Under the Fountain Book Signing in the Plymouth Evening Herald

21st of June, 2011 Valerie Daekin offers to host a charity event at Orley House for a garden Tea Party

After meeting with Valerie, who has offered to host a charity event to raise mony for CLIC-Sargent, we have decided to hold a Tea Party on 20th of August, 2-4.30, 2011. We are going to hold a further meeting in 2 weeks time to confirm the details of the event.

23rd of April, Book Signing at Waterstones, Drake Centre, Plymouth

I have to say that I was quite nervous about this, but it turned out to be a really enjoyable day. We gave out the flyer on the book which hopefully raised the profile of Under the Fountain and of CLIC-Sargent and of course helped to sell some books. The staff of Waterstones couldn't have been more welcoming and were on hand to help us set up the display and to see if there was anything else we needed. They like to support local authors.

A number of children in the shop filled in book reviews of Under the Fountain along with drawing their own pictures of seals etc.

It was a great opportunity to meet many interesting people, other authors- one just learning the trade, teachers and a number of people who have had a connection with CLIC-Sargent or other cancer charities.

Many thanks to Michele, Will, Sarah, Pete, Helen, Jennie, Dave and Nick for helping and giving support.