World of possibilities

Hope is everything, and sometimes the only thing. It's why author Katherine Rundell's new collection, The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Encourage Children in Lockdown, which has contributions from over 110 children writers and illustrators, makes for a delightful read. The book, which has been made available as a free PDF on the National Literacy Trust website, is full of optimism, with poetry and fairytales about humans, animals, birds, machines and many other alien and unreal beings. Rundell likes to describe herself as a "possibilityist"—a believer in the possibilities of creating a world of our dreams. A few weeks ago, when the world came to a grinding halt due to the Coronavirus scare, Rundell launched the Hope Project, getting fellow writers and artists, whom she describes as "professional hunters of hope", to contribute short fiction/non-fiction and drawings that could inspire, especially in unsettling times like these.

Katherine Rundell. Pics courtesy/Nina Subin