The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon by David Almond, Polly Dunbar reviewed by Chitra Soundar

I love magic realism – from Gabriel Garcia Marquez to The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon which is deceptive yet magical.

I know it’s not a recent book of David Almond, but it’s one of my favourites. Walker Books had done an illustrated version of it with Polly Dunbar’s wonderful illustrations and I got it signed by David Almond a few years ago.

It’s a story of a boy who believes something different and with the help of like-minded friends explores his belief. He then meets Fortuna, a human cannon ball who introduces him to the world up there.

The people in this story are so surreal and so are the incidents. It constantly reminded me of one of my favourite stories as a child – The Magic Faraway Tree (by Enid Blyton) where different world appeared on top of the tree everyday.

This story has now been adapted for stage and is on stage this week (Apr 7/8 2018) on the Northern Stage and earlier it was put on by Polka Theatre too.

And if you missed the show like I did, then here is a short trailer. Maybe it’ll be back on tour again.

The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon - Trailer from Theatre Alibi on Vimeo.

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Chitra Soundar is the author of many picture books including Pattan's Pumpkin and her next book is You're Safe With Me (illustrated by Poonam Mistry) by Lantana Publishing. Find out more at www.chitrasoundar.com and follow on Twitter @csoundar

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