Difference between revisions of "Newest Children's Rhymes and Verse Reviews"

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[[Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|*]]
 
[[Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Children's Rhymes and Verse]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
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[[Category:New Reviews|Children's Rhymes and Verse]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Joseph Coelho and Kate Milner
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|isbn=0995647895
|title=Overheard in a Tower Block: Poems
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|title=Sadie and the Sea Dogs
 +
|author=Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|genre=For Sharing
|summary=I've said it before, and I'll end up saying it again – for sheer variety of contents, and diversity on the page, you can seldom beat poetryHere are bullied children, the angst of parental break-up, and hard-done-by gods getting revenge. We're in the realm of myth, and Richmond Park, and EastbourneWe're with whale sharks, or stuck in tower blocks, or feeding the seagulls that are with us in the latter but that ought to be with the formerWe're rapping about puberty, visiting our absent father to tell him our exam results, and leaving for universityI'm sure you'll agree, that's spread enough for any book, let alone a slender hundred pages.
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|summary=Sadie's mother always said that she was a dreamer, her mind never on what she should be doingShe lives by the River Thames at Greenwich and she loves to spend hours at The Maritime Museum or gazing at Cutty Sark.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910959588</amazonuk>
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}}
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''Her class had gone one rainy afternoon''<br>
{{newreview
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''When all the houses cowered in the gloom,''<br>
|author=Hilda Offen
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''To the Maritime Museum''.  
|title=Message from the Moon
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|rating=4
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Her imagination was firedShe'd love to sail the oceans on an ancient sailing ship and went back regularlyOne day she fell asleep under a glass case (it's the one where Nelson's Trafalgar breeches are on show) and missed the closing bell and the attendant's warning shoutWhen she woke (hard floors don't make comfy beds) she was in the midst of an adventure that she could never have imagined in a world of dolphins, pirates, mermaids and treasure.
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=Yes, that is really a 'Message from the Moon' you receive courtesy of this bookYou also get the point of view of the sea itself, as well as children seeing the city night from their bedroom window and other people witnessing geese flying over, and you even get a message from a snail. The range of verses in this book is however but one of its many qualities…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909991430</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Brian Moses
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|isbn=Esiri Poem
|title=Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses
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|title=A Poem for Every Day of the Year
 +
|author=Allie Esiri
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|genre=Anthologies
|summary=For a poet with the very memorable name of [[:Category:Brian Moses|Moses]], I have to admit never having come across it before, nor having knowingly read any of his works. This collection was the perfect place for me to come late to the party, as it takes the author's own favourites from several previous anthologies of his, and adds new verses.  I read them with very little clue as to which was which – and certainly couldn't tell having finished the book.  There is a lot here that will grab the young schoolchild, but the topics cover so much there really will be a universal appeal, meaning that a lot of people will have a definite favourite from these pages, even if the author himself cannot decide…
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|summary=For those who do not read much poetry, for those who do not know where to start, this is a fun and easy commitment to take on. Reading a poem a day does not take long, mere minutes, and with over three-hundred poems in here there's bound to be a poem that speaks to each reader directly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509838767</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sue Hardy-Dawson
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|isbn=Stevenson_Garden
|title=Where Zebras Go
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|title=A Child's Garden of Verses
|rating=3.5
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|author=Robert Louis Stevenson
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|rating=2
|summary=I doubt if you could have zebras, foxes, the end of the world, penguins, dinosaurs and people out of fairy tale all together if it wasn't in a book of poetry. Even short stories would struggle to fit the breadth of content into as few pages as this volume does.  Add in home life, school life and, er, football, and you really do have a diverse selection of subjects.  All have caught the eye of our author ever since she started her career – some of these poems date back a decade – and now she is going to try her damnedest, with some brilliant design, to make sure they all catch the eye of you.
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|genre=Anthologies
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910959316</amazonuk>
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|summary=Robert Louis Stevenson was a very versatile writer; he delved deep into the human psyche when he wrote ''The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' but he did not restrict himself to representations of the gothic and the persecuted. He also wrote brilliant children's adventure stories such as ''Treasure Island'' and ''Kidnapped'', but, again, he did not restrict himself to prose writing because here he demonstrates his ability to write poetry.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
 
|author=George Szirtes and Tim Archbold
 
|title=How to be a Tiger
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=''Wet again, yet again!  Down it drips, little fingertips, tapping and snapping as if the rain were cross.''<br>
 
''See the branches toss?  See the puddles grow?  Has it stopped raining?
 
NO.''
 
  
Yes, sometimes only a quote will do.  After all, we do come to poetry for snappy concision, and that's what we get here…
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{{Frontpage
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910959200</amazonuk>
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|isbn=Donaldson_Treasury
}}
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|title=A Treasury of Songs
{{newreview
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|author=Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
|author= Allie Esiri
 
|title= A Poem for Every Night of the Year
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=Poetry can feel a little intimidating, to children and grown-ups.  All those school lessons of dissecting poems in order to ascertain exactly what the poet intended with every word and stylistic form tend to kill the beauty of a well-written poem.  This collection is a year-long tour through a vast history of poetry, and gives the reader a new poem to try every night, with everything from Michael Rosen to Shakespeare to Christina Rosetti.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509813136</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=W B Yeats, Noreen Doody and Shona Shirley Macdonald
 
|title= The Moon Spun Round: W. B. Yeats for Children
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=William Butler Yeats – take note, kids – the names behind those initials can see you through on many a TV quiz show, so remember them.  WB Yeats – take note, parents – for if you're like me you won't ever have considered him for a collection for young readers, if, that is, you'd even considered him whatsoever.  This edition is a case somewhat of 'never mind the words, just see ''that'' artwork' – but I know you'll want to read on and find out what I make of the text.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847177387</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gavin Puckett and Tor Freeman
 
|title=Colin the Cart Horse
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=Meet Colin.  He's a perfectly regular cart horse, carrying the crops, tools and children around the farm.  He's happy with a life of labour, resting after his shift is done about three every afternoon, and a life of hay – that is, however, until he wonders what his fellow farm animals are eating.  What could be the consequence of him trying out every other farm food on the market?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571315437</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Emily Bolam
 
|title=Let's Sing and Play
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Monkeys are vocal animals and if you walk through the jungle you may hear them scream.  Perhaps they have just slid down an elephant's trunk or maybe they are just attempting to sing?  Having a child means that you will start to hear the same rhymes over and over again, so if it takes a few cheeky monkeys to teach us a few new ones, I am happy with that.  Just don't let them jump on top of my car at the Safari Park.
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|summary=Some people have all the skills, not only is Julia Donaldson one of the most successful children's authors, but she can also carry a tune. For the past few years, she has adapted many of her most popular stories into songs and plays them during open readings, or releases them as part of a songbook. For the first time, A Treasury of Songs brings together several of her books in one omnibus and it also has a CD too of Donaldson singing the songs.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447286979</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Phil Allcock and Gina Maldonado
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|isbn=Woollard_Kipling
|title=Animal Magic
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|title=Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
 +
|author=Elli Woollard and Marta Altes
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Having read many children's books in recent years I have come to know the concept of nonsense rhymes.  I don't mean silly adventures that happen to be written in rhyming couplets; I mean bad rhymes. The best books for sharing should have fluidity to them, the story simply rolls off the tongue as you turn the pages. Too many times I have read a book in which the rhymes just don't scan and you end up tripping over your words. So as this book is part of the ''Nonsense Animal Rhymes'' series, does the nonsense come from the story being daft, or because the rhymes are nonsensical?
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|summary=Now, whatever our age, there are probably a few books that we have all encountered at some point in our childhoods. They have stood the test of time to such an extent that they have become a piece of our culture common to so many of us, and are known throughout the world. One of them is by Rudyard Kipling, who brought a child's sense of wonder and his own Victorian absurdist set of explanations to play in a dozen examples of warm whimsy. In shrugging off evolution he got to convey how the rhino skin is so ill-fitting and rumpled, how the whale learnt he cannot eat humans, and how the elephant got such a thing as his trunk. In doing so he entertained his young daughter, not knowing she would die as a child long before he produced a book-length collection – and way before he saw something into print that has lasted ever since. Just in case these tales are not for your young audience yet (and it won't be long, trust me), you can start them in early with this lovely and bright adaptation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848862326</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Elli Woollard
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|isbn=Harris_Rhyming
|title=The Secret Pirate (Swashbuckle Lil: The Secret Pirate)
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|title=I'm Just No Good At Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups
|rating=4
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|author=Chris Harris and Lane Smith
|genre= Emerging Readers
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|rating=4.5
|summary= School girl Lil is a secret pirate. Her classmates think she's an ordinary girl and assume they're just imagining things when they hear her bag squawk. They don't know that's where she keeps her parrot (whose name is Carrot). Her teacher, Miss Lubber, thinks Lil's naughty and is unaware that Lil's really trying to save the teacher from being kidnapped by the wicked pirate, Stinkbeard. But Lil doesn't mind because she knows the truth – she's a bold and brave pirate and all her adventures are true (at least to her).
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509808825</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gavin Puckett and Tor Freeman
 
|title=Hendrix the Rocking Horse (Fables from the Stables 2)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=Poor Hendrix. He has a nice life and a nice farmer's field, but he's bored.  All the excitement of the world is just too far away, except for the time the fairground came to town, complete with Ferris wheel, rides, stilted jugglers and the Tumbling Pebbles playing a gig.  He could hear all of their concert – even dancing and prancing around his field as a result.  But little did he know what would happen when the lead guitarist's instrument literally fell off the back of their tour bus, and Hendrix had a chance to find the music within…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571315402</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Julia Donaldson and Lucy Richards
 
|title=Night Monkey, Day Monkey
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=A night monkey should only be awake in the night.  A day monkey should only be awake in the day.  They should never have to experience the 'wrong' side of their routine. But what happens when they each in turn wake the other up, and night monkey has to suffer the brightness of day, and the day monkey the spooky life without sunlight?  Well this lovely book is what happens – proof positive that despite the old adage, polar opposites can be a twain that can meet – and just about get along perfectly well, thank you.
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|summary=In the sniffy world of literary poetry, people seem to be able to knock together a dozen verses and get an audience of twenty people to buy a pamphlet, and they call themselves published authors. You get a similar thing at times with poetry for the young – most poetry books, after all, have a lot more blank space in them than routine volumes, and people compile their best arrays of very few words in between two covers and bingo, they have a book, and twenty minutes later bingo, you've read it. That's most certainly not the case here, for this is crammed with what has to be considered a major outpouring of wit and rhyme. And whatever age you are, and whatever experience with verse you may have, this will not seem to you like someone's first book of poetry.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405283343</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Pip Jones
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|isbn=Goss_600
|title=Squishy McFluff: Seaside Rescue!
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|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)
 +
|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre= Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary= Ava and her invisible cat – Squishy McFluff – are off to the seaside for their latest adventure together. They have great fun digging in the sand towards Australia and sitting on the beach eating ice cream. (Although the adults who fall in their hole and the ice cream man may not share their enthusiasm.) Everything is purr-fect until invisible cat Squishy decides to chase an invisible fish. Now it's up to Ava to stage a 'seaside rescue'…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571320686</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
 
|title=Now We Are Six
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=We can see the signs in [[The House at Pooh Corner by A A Milne and E H Shepard|The House at Pooh Corner]] that Christopher Robin is growing up and now he has school work to do.  But he's a lucky little boy as he has Winnie the Pooh to help him.  Or is he lucky, given that Winnie is also known as 'the Bear of very little brain'?  Actually, Pooh has a message for us in the introduction: he says that he walked through the book one day, looking for his friend Piglet, and sat down on some of the pages by mistake.  He hopes that we won't mind.
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|summary=Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280867</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
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|isbn=0956503527
|title=When We Were Very Young
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|title=There's A Lion In My Bathroom
|rating=5
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|author=Giles Paley-Phillips
 +
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=I've never been fond of poetry: there's something missing in my soul as I cannot see the benefits of saying something in verse form when it could be expressed more simply.  I often wish that I was different and just occasionally some verse will touch me: it has happened with [[:Category:Wendy Cope|Wendy Cope]] and now with this delightful volume from A A Milne. As I read there was a curious mixture of ''good'' memories from childhood (and they were all too rare) and new material which struck a chord. The 'decorations' by E H Shepard didn't do any harm either!
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|summary=This collection of nonsense poetry takes in all sorts of subjects, from wannabe magicians to armpits, and from failed cowboys to a girl with springs for feet. It's all very silly, all very nonsensical, and good fun. A proportion of profits are being donated to [http://www.beatbloodcancers.org/ Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280859</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Clement C Moore and Max Marshall
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|isbn=0192731831
|title= The Night Before Christmas
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|title=See You Later, Escalator
|rating= 5
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|author=John Foster
|genre= Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Everyone knows the classic story of the night before Christmas, but as a child I never had it in a standalone book like this and, it seems, I never knew there was quite as much to the tale. If you don't already own a version, this new release is a must buy for the presentation alone.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848959125</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Roger Stevens
 
|title=I Wish I had a Pirate Hat
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=I was worried, initially, that all these poems were going to be about pirates. How would Roger Stevens keep the interest going if he was confined to the staple diet of treasure maps and skull and cross bones? In fact there are only three pirate poems but they are the first three and the book cover gives little indication of the variety within. ''I Wish I had a Pirate Hat'' contains forty five poems grouped into Fun Time, School Time, Home Time. No poem is longer than a page and there’s sufficient range of form and tone to keep one reading. There’s also sufficient consistency to allow one to drop in at random and with confidence.
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|summary=Always a sucker for a good poetry anthology here at Bookbag, we've enjoyed two previous collections from John Foster. ''See You Later, Escalator'' continues in the same vein, with poems from the likes of Tony Mitton, Michael Rosen, Michelle Magorian and Brian Patten.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184780618X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jules Nilsson
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|isbn=1849392021
|title=The Hounds of Falsterbo
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|title=There's An Alien In The Classroom
|rating=4
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|author=Gervase Phinn
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=''In between the beach huts''<br>
 
''Where the white sands meet the seas,''<br>
 
''The heather meets the sand dunes''<br>
 
''And long grasses dance the breeze.''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0992708419</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tony Ross
 
|title=Bedtime Rhymes
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=It is getting late so it is time to start the bedtime routine; upstairs for a wash, clean your teeth and then into your PJs. Settle into bed and what now?  A story perhaps, or some night time nursery rhymes. Is it just me or do many of these bedtime tales feel a lot more sinister than their daytime cousins?
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|summary=''There's An Alien In The Classroom'' is a collection of school-based poems and poems aimed at school-age children. Taking in all forms, from limericks and cautionary verse to acrostics and haiku, it offers a broad overview of poetry. With themes including school, families, seasons, Bonfire Night, Nativity plays and going to the dentist, there's something to appeal to every child.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783440473</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tony Ross
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|isbn=1408304589
|title=Playtime Rhymes
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|title=The Orchard Book Of Nursery Rhymes For Your Baby
 +
|author=Penny Dann
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Great news!  Your friends are having a baby!  That pretty much means that everybody you know has at least one or two rug rats crawling around the place.  It’s all well and good, but how can you possibly come up with another present for a baby?  Thankfully, great books and wonderful nursery rhymes are always in fashion – combine the two and you have a gift that you may just want to keep for yourself.
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|summary=All your favourite nursery rhymes are here, from Hickory Dickory Dock, through Little Bo Peep and Three Blind Mice, to Sing A Song Of Sixpence. With over sixty nursery rhymes to choose from, all the big names are presented in a beautiful compendium that you'll treasure for years.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783440481</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Roger McGough, Michael Rosen and Korky Paul (illustrator)
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|isbn=0141324511
|title=You Tell Me!
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|title=Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things
|rating=2.5
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|author=Michael Rosen
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=All life can be in poetry – the hectic schedule of a person forever popping somewhere, the policeman living in a world of bad puns, an uncle who may or not have brought memories of sniper fire back from war. All of life it seems on this evidence can be poetry – football results, memoir, advice to counter bullies. All people in this life can be poets – and the way I reacted to a lot of this collection, perhaps it's just as well.
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|summary=When he was little, Michael Rosen's dad remembered all the bad things he'd done and reminded him of them when appropriate, so Michael imagined he'd written them all down in a Big Book of Bad Things. Here he presents the eponymous poem, as well as many many other tales of childhood, from the horrors of being a second late to school, to making a raft, to going to a café. Some bad, some sad, some quirky, some funny, some touching, some light-hearted, all wonderful.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847804446</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Danielle Wright (editor) and Mique Moriuchi (illustrator)
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|isbn=033051086X
|title=My Village: Rhymes from Around the World
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|title=The World At Our Feet
 +
|author=Paul Cookson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=I'm thinking that of all the kinds of books that have ability to surprise, high up on the list are poetry books.  You can generally see the style, idea or genre of a novel from the cover, and beyond a few shocks and twists nothing changes.  But take poetry on board, and there are surprises on each page – the concentrated form of the literature surely gives the author more chance to bedazzle, to pull the rug over the readers' eyes and to generally give something the audience didn't expect. And so it is with this book, for while [[:Category:Michael Rosen|Michael Rosen's]] introduction spoke to us of nursery rhymes, I had already flicked through and still was not expecting a spread of them.  Even when he itemised the various kinds I didn't foresee finding them all on the pages, although that is what I got. Who would have thought that such a small, succinct and varied little volume would have that much capacity to surprise?
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|summary=With the World Cup just around the corner, football is on everyone's lips. Paul Cookson, Poet in Residence at the [http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/ National Football Museum], has compiled the best football poems for young children.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847806279</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Walter de la Mare
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|isbn=0192729934
|title=Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes
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|title=Whizz Bang Orang-Utan
|rating=3
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|author=John Foster
 +
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=It was a surprise for me to read online that Walter de la Mare spent so much of his life in and around London – born at least in what is now the borough of Greenwich, passing away in Twickenham. The reason I say this is that out of the copious poems collected here, it's as if cities don't exist. Hardly anything of the subjects is manmade. The concentration is fully on the idyllic and pastoral, and in following on so closely in the footsteps of his debut collection, 'Songs of Childhood' from 1902, still very, very much Victorian.
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|summary=Subtitled ''rhymes for the very young'', you know what you're getting with ''Whizz Bang Orang-Utan''. It's a poetry anthology, with sweet poems about kids, what they get up to, and of course whizzing and banging orang-utans.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571313892</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Evangeline Lilly and Johnny Fraser-Allen
+
|isbn=0230745865
|title=The Squickerwonkers
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|title=In My Sky at Twilight
 +
|author=Gaby Morgan (editor)
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Selma is a young girl who finds a strange attraction on the edge of a fair – a large gypsy caravan-styled contraption, which she enters, alone but for her shiny red balloon.  She appears to be alone, until nine marionette puppets suddenly appear on the stage within, and a disembodied voice introduces them all to her.  They are the Squickerwonkers, and as we are about to see, they can reveal someone's entire character with the simplest of actions…
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|summary=Off the back of the success of Stephenie Meyer's [[Twilight by Stephenie Meyer|Twilight]] series there has been a boom in vampire novels aimed at teenagers. In My Sky at Twilight is perhaps one of the most unusual books to come out of this craze as it is a collection of love poetry aimed at teenage fans of the series.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295457</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Illustrated Old Possum
 
|author=T S Eliot and Nicolas Bentley
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=This title is clearly of importance to the house of Faber.  To this day their puff mentions it was one of their first childrens' books, after the author sent his publisher's son, his godson, some writings based on jellicle cats and some of their scrapes.  It's clearly a book that's important to Andrew Lloyd Webber, too, but we'll gloss speedily over that.  It's a book that was important to me as well – I certainly had a copy, a thin, barely illustrated, old-fashioned style paperback of it once I had seen the musical.  And with the excellent writing here and the ability of it to delight so many people of so many ages, it has the power to be important to a future generation.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571313086</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Nonsense Limericks (Faber Children's Classics)
 
|author=Edward Lear and Arthur Robins (illustrator)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=There was a young man whose critique<br>
 
Of this book was submitted one week<br>
 
When they asked 'Was it fine?'<br>
 
He said 'No denyin' –<br>
 
'There's very little here they could tweak!'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571302262</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Owl and the Pussy-cat
 
|author=Edward Lear, Charlotte Voake and Julia Donaldson
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=This is a poem which has always resonated with me, because there is something about it which is nothing short of magical. It taps into that part of children which still love nursery rhymes, or to pretend they fly to the moon when they go to sleep. This edition is beautifully laid out, and I would happily buy it in a heartbeat.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>072329321X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Seen and Not Heard
 
|author=Katie May Green
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=During the day the eight children of Shiverhawk Hall are seen and not heard for they are images captured on canvas. 'Don’t they look so sweet and good, so well behaved like children should?' They certainly look a picture, picked out in the silvery moonlight. As night sets in and all is quiet, only the black cat and a handful of mice are there to see the portraits come to life and step out of their frames. What mischief can these children from across the ages make?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406346519</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The It Doesn't Matter Suit and Other Stories
 
|author=Sylvia Plath and David Roberts
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=I've said it before and I'll say it again, that you should always approach classical authors through their least typical, shortest and more individual works – you won't gain much insight perhaps into why they were famous, but you will find more entertainment and greater pleasures by staying outside the canon.  And the lovely people at Faber and Faber have a case in point – rather than plough through serious dross from Eliot, why not stick to [[The Illustrated Old Possum by T S Eliot and Nicolas Bentley]]?  And with Sylvia Plath I cannot think of a better place to start with her oeuvre than with these snappy and delightful pages.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571314643</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Over the Hills and Far Away
 
|author=Elizabeth Hammill (Editor)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=I’m a bit picky on behalf of my toddler.  See the word ‘Treasury’ and I expect him to be treated to a volume he will want to pass on to his own children. Anything less and I am disappointed. I’m relieved to get one thing straight from the start. This one’s a gem -  a gorgeous joy of a book that you will just want to keep opening again and again. It’s not a question of whether it is worthy of hypothetical grandchildren, it’s more a question of how well thumbed it will be when they get it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847804063</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=What A Wonderful World
 
|author=Bob Thiele, George David Weiss and Tim Hopgood
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=''What a Wonderful World'' is a book and accompanying CD set based on the Louis Armstrong song. In fact it is the book and CD of that song as it’s not a new story or a padded out version of the original, it’s simply an illustrated version of the lyrics.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192736906</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Twelve Days of Christmas
 
|author=Britta Teckentrup
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=You know the song already, but this peep-through book recreates the magic of the ''Twelve Days of Christmas'' in a beautiful and special way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848958862</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Oxford Treasury of Nursery Rhymes
 
|author=Sarah Williams and Karen King
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=When it comes to nursery rhymes, what you learn at your Mother’s knee as a baby is gospel. Recently I have expanded my repertoire courtesy of Cheshire libraries excellent rhyme time activities, but at heart I still can't quite come to terms with the librarian saying 'washed ''the spider'' out as opposed to my mum’s washed ''poor Incey'' out'.  Sadly, Williams’ and King’s compendium ''The Oxford Treasury of Nursery Rhymes'' doesn’t take my Mum’s side in this.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192738666</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Mad About Mega Beasts!
 
|author=Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz (Illustrator)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=When I was small I was fascinated with things that were big; big buildings, big vehicles, big animals.  However, I have recently learnt that there is a size that is bigger than big – mega.  What beasts, both from now and from the past, are large enough to achieve this accolade and be welcomed into the hallowed pages of this book?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408329352</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Confident Readers Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 09:00, 21 April 2021

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Review of

Sadie and the Sea Dogs by Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice

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Sadie's mother always said that she was a dreamer, her mind never on what she should be doing. She lives by the River Thames at Greenwich and she loves to spend hours at The Maritime Museum or gazing at Cutty Sark.

Her class had gone one rainy afternoon
When all the houses cowered in the gloom,
To the Maritime Museum.

Her imagination was fired. She'd love to sail the oceans on an ancient sailing ship and went back regularly. One day she fell asleep under a glass case (it's the one where Nelson's Trafalgar breeches are on show) and missed the closing bell and the attendant's warning shout. When she woke (hard floors don't make comfy beds) she was in the midst of an adventure that she could never have imagined in a world of dolphins, pirates, mermaids and treasure. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Esiri Poem/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri

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For those who do not read much poetry, for those who do not know where to start, this is a fun and easy commitment to take on. Reading a poem a day does not take long, mere minutes, and with over three-hundred poems in here there's bound to be a poem that speaks to each reader directly. Full Review

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Review of

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Robert Louis Stevenson was a very versatile writer; he delved deep into the human psyche when he wrote The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde but he did not restrict himself to representations of the gothic and the persecuted. He also wrote brilliant children's adventure stories such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but, again, he did not restrict himself to prose writing because here he demonstrates his ability to write poetry. Full Review

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Review of

A Treasury of Songs by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

4star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

Some people have all the skills, not only is Julia Donaldson one of the most successful children's authors, but she can also carry a tune. For the past few years, she has adapted many of her most popular stories into songs and plays them during open readings, or releases them as part of a songbook. For the first time, A Treasury of Songs brings together several of her books in one omnibus and it also has a CD too of Donaldson singing the songs. Full Review

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Review of

Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories by Elli Woollard and Marta Altes

4.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

Now, whatever our age, there are probably a few books that we have all encountered at some point in our childhoods. They have stood the test of time to such an extent that they have become a piece of our culture common to so many of us, and are known throughout the world. One of them is by Rudyard Kipling, who brought a child's sense of wonder and his own Victorian absurdist set of explanations to play in a dozen examples of warm whimsy. In shrugging off evolution he got to convey how the rhino skin is so ill-fitting and rumpled, how the whale learnt he cannot eat humans, and how the elephant got such a thing as his trunk. In doing so he entertained his young daughter, not knowing she would die as a child long before he produced a book-length collection – and way before he saw something into print that has lasted ever since. Just in case these tales are not for your young audience yet (and it won't be long, trust me), you can start them in early with this lovely and bright adaptation. Full Review

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Review of

I'm Just No Good At Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups by Chris Harris and Lane Smith

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In the sniffy world of literary poetry, people seem to be able to knock together a dozen verses and get an audience of twenty people to buy a pamphlet, and they call themselves published authors. You get a similar thing at times with poetry for the young – most poetry books, after all, have a lot more blank space in them than routine volumes, and people compile their best arrays of very few words in between two covers and bingo, they have a book, and twenty minutes later bingo, you've read it. That's most certainly not the case here, for this is crammed with what has to be considered a major outpouring of wit and rhyme. And whatever age you are, and whatever experience with verse you may have, this will not seem to you like someone's first book of poetry. Full Review

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Review of

Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies

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Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same. Full Review

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Review of

There's A Lion In My Bathroom by Giles Paley-Phillips

3.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

This collection of nonsense poetry takes in all sorts of subjects, from wannabe magicians to armpits, and from failed cowboys to a girl with springs for feet. It's all very silly, all very nonsensical, and good fun. A proportion of profits are being donated to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Full Review

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Review of

See You Later, Escalator by John Foster

4.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

Always a sucker for a good poetry anthology here at Bookbag, we've enjoyed two previous collections from John Foster. See You Later, Escalator continues in the same vein, with poems from the likes of Tony Mitton, Michael Rosen, Michelle Magorian and Brian Patten. Full Review

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Review of

There's An Alien In The Classroom by Gervase Phinn

3.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

There's An Alien In The Classroom is a collection of school-based poems and poems aimed at school-age children. Taking in all forms, from limericks and cautionary verse to acrostics and haiku, it offers a broad overview of poetry. With themes including school, families, seasons, Bonfire Night, Nativity plays and going to the dentist, there's something to appeal to every child. Full Review

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Review of

The Orchard Book Of Nursery Rhymes For Your Baby by Penny Dann

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All your favourite nursery rhymes are here, from Hickory Dickory Dock, through Little Bo Peep and Three Blind Mice, to Sing A Song Of Sixpence. With over sixty nursery rhymes to choose from, all the big names are presented in a beautiful compendium that you'll treasure for years. Full Review

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Review of

Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things by Michael Rosen

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When he was little, Michael Rosen's dad remembered all the bad things he'd done and reminded him of them when appropriate, so Michael imagined he'd written them all down in a Big Book of Bad Things. Here he presents the eponymous poem, as well as many many other tales of childhood, from the horrors of being a second late to school, to making a raft, to going to a café. Some bad, some sad, some quirky, some funny, some touching, some light-hearted, all wonderful. Full Review

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Review of

The World At Our Feet by Paul Cookson

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With the World Cup just around the corner, football is on everyone's lips. Paul Cookson, Poet in Residence at the National Football Museum, has compiled the best football poems for young children. Full Review

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Review of

Whizz Bang Orang-Utan by John Foster

3.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

Subtitled rhymes for the very young, you know what you're getting with Whizz Bang Orang-Utan. It's a poetry anthology, with sweet poems about kids, what they get up to, and of course whizzing and banging orang-utans. Full Review

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Review of

In My Sky at Twilight by Gaby Morgan (editor)

4star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

Off the back of the success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series there has been a boom in vampire novels aimed at teenagers. In My Sky at Twilight is perhaps one of the most unusual books to come out of this craze as it is a collection of love poetry aimed at teenage fans of the series. Full Review

Move on to Newest Confident Readers Reviews