Hello, I'm Joseph Coelho.
And I've been asked by the British Library
to create a very small concertina booklet,
which I have done, all about me
because that is what was asked.
So I've done a little concertina booklet all about me
to inspire you to do your own concertina booklets
where you put yourself in the center of the story.
So I've called my little book
"The Search For Words" by Joseph Coelho.
That is me.
I've done a dedication on the first page.
And I've just used photographs
that I've printed up in black and white
and I've cut them up and stuck them in.
So my dedication is,
"For those that know words make you float."
I found a photo of me when I was very little
and I wrote this first sentence all around my body.
It says, "This is a story of how I became a poet.
How I discovered words hiding in the world."
And I made world very big and it's upside down,
because I can, because it's my book.
It starts like this.
"When I was little, I liked to play outside.
The great outdoors gave me inspiration to write,
and write I did.
I started to write poems in school.
This is me with my pal, James and we're writing."
And there's another picture of me, very small with a ball.
And that's me at school with my friend James
and we were writing.
"This is the block of flats where I grew up."
Can you see the block there in the background?
"Where I grew up in Roehampton, the alternate estate.
Once the biggest council estate in Europe.
Roehampton has lots of green areas that inspired my writing.
But I knew there were more words
out in the world to be discovered
so I packed my bags and I left."
And that's my little camper van,
showing me leaving to travel the world.
"I travelled the world
with a pencil case chock-a-block full of pens.
Silly pens, groovy pens, pens with punch, pens with drive,
pens that could ink great desires and terrible fears."
There's me with all my pens,
my pencil case full of crazy pens.
Here's the next page.
"In India I met performers who shared
words full of thrills, tingles, and gasps!"
And you see, I've done the word gasps very big
in between the two performers.
This is the next page.
"In Thailand I found old tree-grown words
that wound down and sunk deep.
Words that said, be wild and wonder.
So I searched further and deeper until I found words
that spoke of stars, and emptiness, and love, and loss.
Words that I gathered and bled into my pens
so that they may splodge stories and poems into my books."
And then the last page, which is here.
"And I wrote by candlelight and moonshine,
by starlight twinkle and sunbeam shine,
until the words became sentences
that weaved into paragraphs.
The paragraphs built the walls of poems and stories
that I set down in books, books to share with you.
But the hunt for words continues
for a poet's journey never ends."
And there I am writing by candlelight
and searching for words,
which I continue to do till this day
so that I can write lots of books
for you guys out there to enjoy.
So I hope you're inspired
to create your own mini concertina book.
And look, it's so cool because you can unfold it, like so.
As I said, I did my using collage.
So I printed up some old photographs,
just on normal paper, on black and white paper,
and cut them out and stuck them into my book.
And I then used the opportunity
to find ways of writing words around the photographs.
You could use lots of different colored pens,
or felt tip pens, or crayons.
You could use photographs,
you could cut up magazines that you're allowed to.
Magazines you're allowed to cut up,
or old leaflets that have come through the door.
And cut out words and cut out pictures
to stick in your book.
You could illustrate your book using your pens and pencils
and all your fabulous drawing skills.
But remember to put yourself at the center of the story,
because this is your story, a story all about you.
And it can be real, it can be magical.
I made some bits up in mine.
I did go traveling to all those places,
as you can see in the photographs.
But did I find all those words in all those places?
Am I still finding the words in those places?
Maybe I made a few things up.
Maybe I exaggerated a few things.
So you can have fun and exaggerating things.
Did I really go to outer space?
Who knows?
Maybe I did.
I mean, there is a photo, and they do say photos never lie,
of me in space.
But maybe it's a bit of a trick, who knows.
I wish you all the best of luck
creating your concertina books for the British Library.
Good luck.
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Explore, Imagine, Create at bl.uk/childrens-books