Milo and the Mountain

Milo lives beside the Mountain and, more than anything, he wants to climb to the top. But, it’s just so huge! It’s all he can think about from morning to night, his obsession illustrated in playful images that show him for example sculpting his bath bubbles (and wet hair) into peaks. He determines he will do it, practises, gets as far as the foot of the Mountain, but always finds a reason to put it off until tomorrow. Finally, following his dad’s advice, he asks his friends for help, and they give him the encouragement and support he needs to get all the way to the summit. Procrastinators will absolutely identify with Milo and everyone will appreciate this quirky demonstration of the power of friends and community. This is Jamie Carroll’s debut picture book and he has a wonderfully distinctive and confident style, each spread a different composition, telling the story with humour and cleverly controlled pace. There’s a tactile feel to the illustrations, both Milo and Mountain, and enough detail on each page to keep readers absorbed for hours.