We Don't Need No More Towers! (The Tower to the Sun - Colin Thompson)

Member Name: librelola

Product:	The Tower to the Sun - Colin Thompson
Date:	14/12/05 (351 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thought Provoking and Beautifully Illustrated

Disadvantages: None

Pollution is not a topic that is very high on the priority list of children's books subjects, but Colin Thompson always tackles matters with a bit of difference.

Born Colin Willment, on the 18th of October 1942 in Ealing, London, his mother changed his surname to Thompson (his stepfather's surname) when he was 11 years old. He went to boarding school in Yorkshire, grammar school in London and studied art for 2 years in Ealing and Hammersmith. He worked as a silk screen printer, graphic designer and even made documentaries for the BBC for a while.

He lived a year in Majorca, followed by 7 years on a little island in the Outer Hebrides where he started working in Ceramics, something he would do for 20 years.
In 1975, he moved to Cumbria where he lived and worked in an old farmhouse on the edge of a forest for another 20 years. During his time there, he planted hundreds of trees and "made" a lake, which today is home to a family of mediaeval carp.

In 1990, he started illustrating children's books and by the end of 2002, had 30 books published. In 1995, he went to Australia for a visit and has lived there ever since.

Colin Thompson has 3 daughters and 3 grandchildren.
His favourite fruit is cherries.
His favourite music is Rock'n'Roll and old blues records.
He is left handed and colour blind (this absolutely amazed me!!)

"I always believed in the magic of childhood and think that if you get your life right that magic should never end. I feel that if a children's book cannot be enjoyed properly by adults, there is something wrong with either the book or the adult reading it."

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From the first moment I opened a book of Colin Thompson's, I fell in love with his illustrations, his heart felt stories and was instantly viscerally jealous at the way in which he could draw… Given half a dozen further reincarnations and 220 years of practice, I may aspire to become as good as him…

The Tower to the Sun holds a frightening vision of what the future may hold.

The story starts in a future world so heavily polluted that the sun is no longer visible. Indeed, it has not been glimpsed for so many years that, "the richest man in the world" recounts to his grandson the way things once were:

"When I was your age, the sky was blue and the sun was so bright that you couldn't look at it."

"I know," said the boy, "I've seen pictures."

But all the boy really knows is a world covered by a thick mist and eternal clouds that have blocked the light from the sun to such an extent, that its existence is just another legend to add to the many existing ones, whose contents no one is certain whether they are truthful or a fruit of some rich imagination.

The richest man in the world is so nostalgic about the world's brighter days that he would give anything to see the sun once more.

So his grandson comes up with many ideas. But flying above the clouds was no longer an option, as "planes didn't fly anymore, not even for the richest man in the world." A world where so little fuel is left, that it is needed for "more important things than journeys through the clouds" (Bush would not like that, now would he? Ok… I'll stop mentioning him!)

They try to build a balloon, but this also fails.

Then the grandson has an idea:

"We could build a tower,"…"A tower to the Sun."

The richest man in the world's initial reaction is that this would prove impossible, but thankfully, he ends up thinking:

"Why not? What use is all my money is I can't build dreams?"

And the construction of the dream begins. For 10 long years during which the richest man in the world grows older and his grandson becomes a man.

For a further 10 years, in which time the grandson has children of his own.

"But still they couldn't see the sun."

So they worked faster, building "the greatest machine ever made."

They built the tower using, amongst other things "fabulous buildings" from every continent of the world, piling them ever higher to try and reach the sun. Until at last, they could see the sky getting brighter.

Climbing up to the top of the tower, "the old man, who had once been the richest man in the world, sat at the top of the tower holding his great grandson in his arms. He felt the warmth of the sun shine on his skin as it had done in his youth…"

As everyone was allowed to climb up the tower, every single person in the world embarked upon this adventure, until all had seen "the light that had given them life."

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Thought provoking is the least that can be said about this book. The illustrations that accompany it are partly gloomy, but mainly bright, very much like the subject; still, not less outstanding for that matter. Extensively detailed and never dull, there is always something that will attract a child's attention and most adults' as well.

It is always difficult to tackle matters which are taken for granted; who could think of a world without sun? The scenario the author has chosen is nightmarish, but not impossible (nothing is impossible!), it is a warning of what may happen if we continue to ignore pollution and an invitation to educate our children about its possible consequences (without scaring the hell out of them, if possible!)

The whole idea of the book is, of course, to avoid at all cost the construction of such a tower from ever having to be even contemplated.

It is a challenge for any parent to try and explain such questions to a young child, but I believe there are issues that need not be explained; simply fed to the child through similar stories and our active involvement in the protection of the planet.

There is nothing more effective than personal awareness and commitment to make a child value and appreciate the world he is living in and some of the most important things in life which he and we should never take for granted.

Recommended indeed!


© Lola Awada 2005

Summary: A imaginatively related and illustrated as well as meaningful sotry.