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Recommended by: Kiran Satti
Contact: @KSunray3
Form: Picture book – prose
Length: 32 pages
Brief synopsis: Little Echo is a beautifully moving picture book.
A melancholy beginning.
A cheerful and heart warming end.
It follows a young boy called Max who enters a cave in search of treasure. Little Echo lives Inside the cave – the character could be the personification of loneliness.
Eventually Max sees Little Echo inside the cave when she raises her voice to warn Max he’s in danger.
It is a tale of finding your voice and finding treasure in the form of friendship.
Age recommendation and challenging content: Y2 – Y6
Year 2 – PSHE, story time, reflection time
Years 3 – 6 analysis of picture book codes, developing inference skill and identifying literary techniques, such as similes, metaphors, personification and symbolism.
Notable reasons for recommending: Links to stories such as Speak Up, Bottled and Maya Angelou’s Life Doesn’t Frighten Me – opening up conversations about feelings, empathy, themes linked to characterisation such as bravery/courage, adventure/overcoming fears
Lots of thematic links which could be made to Anthony Browne’s The Tunnel or Pumpkin Soup – the characters go through a physical setting and change when they re-emerge.
Other useful information: Debut story by Al Rodin.