posted on 14 Nov 2022

Carnival of the Clocks by Nick Sharratt

This prolific award-winning author/ illustrator is guaranteed to cheer up any reader with his bold, colourful illustrative style. He is well known for his many picture books aimed at younger children , as well as his longstanding successful collaboration with Jaqueline Wilson, illustrating more subtle and sometimes challenging stories for older readers.

This one is another treat from Barrington Stoke in their pocket book ‘Little Gems‘ series designed to engage children who are developing confidence with reading independently, but who can be spurred-on to finish a short story with plentiful illustrations throughout.

The plot is a simple one inspired by the annual Burning the Clocks event on the shortest day of the year which is created by the Brighton and Hove community arts charity, 'Same Sky'. The first double page spread builds anticipation with a dark grey winter sky, black silhouetted trees and a long green fence: ‘something odd is going on in the playground’.

On the next page we are shown a variety of brightly coloured clocks, and there is the chance to talk about these different and unusual shapes with yet more on subsequent pages. We still don’t know what they are doing there and this promoted plenty of imaginative discussion when I showed it to my little grandsons who suggested that a burglar had broken into a clockmaker’s shop and then left them all in the school playground to collect later in the night! We soon realise that they are actually lanterns that are being carried by the excited children in Class One as they prepare for a procession through the town.

We get the chance to see even more wild and wonderful designs and the boys decided that their favourites were Dev’s dinosaur clock and Freya’s fancy clock, mine was the grandfather clock. There is a focus on where the clockface hands are pointing (all different) - so an opportunity to make links with telling the time which is quite a difficult skill usually covered as part of the Year One curriculum. 

All the local schools join the long procession as the many silhouetted children march past the shops, cafes, the theatre, town hall and big hotels, beach huts and boats. They are led by adult drummers; ‘RAT-A-TAT TAT! RAT-A-TAT TAT’! who lead them past the pier down onto the beach. All the smiling people in the town are now shown in full colour as they cheer and wave up above on the sea front.

My grandsons were unprepared for the huge lantern mountain bonfire that is the culmination of the march – why burn them after all that creative effort? But it is all part of the celebration of the shortest day and the countdown to the promise of Spring.        

As well as helping to teach children about telling the time and seasonal changes, they might be inspired to reflect on their own experiences of customs and traditions such as firework events and festivals. They can experiment with making silhouette pictures, draw their own clock designs and perhaps make their own lanterns with willow sticks and tissue paper as described in the book. And, as with my grandsons, be extremely keen to visit Brighton to take part in the real thing. 

Strongly recommended.            

Karen Argent

November 2022