Floating by the Clouds
Floating by the Clouds
Mohammad Awad
Nina Nill
Penguin, 2026
32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99
9781761047077
I used to only chase the sunshine, always afraid of the clouds…
Ask any parent what they want for their child and the answer is almost invariably, “I want them to be happy.” And they go to great lengths (and expense) to ensure that their child’s life is full of fun and happiness with no clouds to darken their bright horizons.
But you have to wonder if their efforts to make life a big blue sky are, in fact, creating a huge, as-yet hidden cloud because by making life trouble-free with any shadows miraculously banished, their quests prevents their little one from experiencing the full range of human emotions, developing strategies to deal with the inevitable clouds that will appear as they become more independent, and building resilience. What happens when the cottonwool the child has been cocooned in, is no longer there?
In this new release from Penguin, commissioned as part of their Australia’s Diverse Voices program aiming to “represent diverse and emerging voices and celebrate all that makes us human”, spoken word poet and playwright Mohammed Awad encourages young readers to not only see the clouds in their skies, but to embrace them, experience the emotions they engender and learn from them. Likening the more troubling feelings we have to clouds filling with rain that they eventually have to let go, not only does the reader begin to realise that such feelings are natural, common and universal, but letting them go is healthy and necessary.
We do not blame the clouds for the rain. It is only natural that they cry from time to time. They cannot keep all their feelings inside and still stay afloat, so why should you?
But, at the same time, they learn that the rain stops, the clouds pass, and rainbows appear promising sunshine to come. There is truth in the old adage that without rain there can be no rainbows.
There are many books written for little ones to help them identify, understand, accept and express their feelings as they start to build their emotional intelligence and navigate their relationships as their world expands, and, at first glance, with its brief text and engaging illustrations this would appear to be one of those. But as common as metaphors about weather and emotions are, as lyrical as the text and as appealing as the pictures might be, as a teacher of little ones for 55+ years, I wonder if its intended audience would be mature enough to make the leap between their here-and-now, literal, concrete selves and the metaphors used to explain, explore and express emotions if it was read without an adult to help them understand what is being said. Therefore, while this most definitely has a place within that collection, like the story itself where the now-experienced adult is talking to the child, this one would be best shared by an adult who can help the little one understand the key ideas of emotions being something everyone experiences, that they can overwhelm us to the point we can’t see anything but our anger, grief, or whatever, and that sharing how we feel is not just OK but necessary.
And maybe the adult sharing it will learn some valuable lessons too. While we might want life to be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows for our kids, they are much better off if we teach them how to dance in the rain.
