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
+
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0995647895
 +
|title=Sadie and the Sea Dogs
 +
|author=Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=For Sharing
 +
|summary=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''<br>
 +
''When all the houses cowered in the gloom,''<br>
 +
''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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Esiri Poem
 +
|title=A Poem for Every Day of the Year
 +
|author=Allie Esiri
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Anthologies
 +
|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.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Stevenson_Garden
 +
|title=A Child's Garden of Verses
 +
|author=Robert Louis Stevenson
 +
|rating=2
 +
|genre=Anthologies
 +
|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.
 +
}}
 +
 
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Donaldson_Treasury
 +
|title=A Treasury of Songs
 
|author=Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
 
|author=Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
|title=A Treasury of Songs
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Some people have all the skills, not only is Julia Donaldson one of the most successful children's authors, 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 song book. 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.
+
|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>1509846131</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Robert Louis Stevenson
+
|isbn=Woollard_Kipling
|title= A Child's Garden of Verses 
+
|title=Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
|rating= 2
 
|genre= Anthologies
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910959103</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
 
|author=Elli Woollard and Marta Altes
 
|author=Elli Woollard and Marta Altes
|title=Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|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.
+
|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>1509814744</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=Harris_Rhyming
 +
|title=I'm Just No Good At Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups
 
|author=Chris Harris and Lane Smith
 
|author=Chris Harris and Lane Smith
|title=I'm Just No Good At Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|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.
+
|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>1509881042</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Axel Scheffler, Frantz Wittkamp and Roger McGough
+
|isbn=Goss_600
|title=Fish Dream of Trees
+
|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
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Dragons don't bite – ask them to pose for a photo and they burst into a grin. Owls don't bite you, either unless it's the one in the zoo cage you thought was friendly. And while we're on that subject, be careful about man-eating plants – they're never friendly given the chance of finding you alone.  Such lessons are rife across these pages, in a singularly odd – and oddly fun – selection of four-line verses for the young, of any age.
+
|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>1509836500</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Allie Esiri
+
|isbn=0956503527
|title= A Poem for Every Day of the Year 
+
|title=There's A Lion In My Bathroom
|rating= 4
+
|author=Giles Paley-Phillips
|genre= Anthologies
+
|rating=3.5
|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.  
+
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509860541</amazonuk>
+
|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].
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Roger McGough
+
|isbn=0192731831
|title=80
+
|title=See You Later, Escalator
|rating=5
+
|author=John Foster
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Yes, Roger McGough has hit 80 – and it's a query in the reader's mind as to whether he's 80 years of age or just celebrating 80 books, as he's been very highly regarded in poetic circles for so long now that both seem plausible.  In fact, this book is designed to applaud his ninth decade's arrival due in November 2017 (his birthday is 9/11 – that's the British 9/11, not the other one), and it dutifully compiles 80 poems – with a bonus, new one on the back cover.  You also have to take pause in estimating his life's achievement by thinking that not every book of his is, like this one, family-friendly and classroom fodder – but still, such is his output that selecting 80 best must have been no easy feat.
+
|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>014138882X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Michael Morpurgo (editor)
+
|isbn=1849392021
|title=Greatest Magical Stories
+
|title=There's An Alien In The Classroom
|rating=5
+
|author=Gervase Phinn
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|rating=3.5
|summary=I might have started this review by saying something like 'only reading can give your world such wonder'.  But that's wrong – meeting a selkie can, being sent to sleep for a century can, guessing the name of a dwarven spinner maestro can, and so can so much more in the world of children's narrative.  This delightful book is jam-packed with quickly-told classic delights, from Norse-based fable to the purest source of pantomime.  And everywhere you turn you find something full of wonder.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192764039</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Webb and Steve McCarthy
 
|title=A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea: Favourite Rhymes from an Irish Childhood
 
|rating=2
 
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Poetry can come from anywhere, and anything, but this book relies on that which has some link to Irish – a Gaelic twinge here, a bit of the auld country now and again, and an aspect to it that harks back to the source over the sea to the west of us. There's a typical Irish woman's typical cake, which is practically inedible, there is evidence the woman who will be coming round the mountains when she comes was from Erin, and an inciter of workers' strikes and suchlike in America, and there is St Patrick, the Belle of Belfast City, and her southern equivalent, Molly Malone – all presented in exuberant full colour.
+
|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>1847177948</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies
+
|isbn=1408304589
|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)
+
|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=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 the 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.
+
|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>1785942719</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Neal Zetter and Chris White
+
|isbn=0141324511
|title=Here Come the Superheroes
+
|title=Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things
|rating=4
+
|author=Michael Rosen
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|summary=I'm quite sure you're well aware of the spate of superhero movies doing the rounds these days, with any and every star of the comics page seemingly on the big screen – and the small.  They're everywhere, and their numbers are only growing.  But here is a unique chance to meet a few more – Mega Slug, Micro Girl, Magnetic Me, Sister Speed – even one calling himself the Ultimate Superhero.  But we're not meeting them in a well-established comic universe, or with some horrid and convoluted back story.  No, we're being introduced to them all in the format of verse – and for the young superhero and/or poetry fan this clearly has an instant appeal.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909991465</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peter Bently and Charles Fuge
 
|title=A Home Full of Friends
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Bramble Badger was out looking for nuts by the river when the storm broke and he was so cold that he decided to go straight home.  On the way he met a trail of devastation: Snuffle Dormouse's house has been squashed by a falling tree.  She'd like shelter in Bramble's sett, if he has room.  He's a ''little'' bit reluctant because he thinks his sett is in a mess and there isn't much space or dinner available, but what can you do when a friend is in need?  Next it's Tipper the Toad whose home is full of mud, then Boo the Hedgehog's nest has been covered by leaves.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144492057X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joseph Coelho and Kate Milner
 
|title=Overheard in a Tower Block: Poems
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|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 poetry. Here 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 Eastbourne. We'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 former.  We're rapping about puberty, visiting our absent father to tell him our exam results, and leaving for university.  I'm sure you'll agree, that's spread enough for any book, let alone a slender hundred pages.
+
|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>1910959588</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Hilda Offen
+
|isbn=033051086X
|title=Message from the Moon
+
|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=Yes, that is really a 'Message from the Moon' you receive courtesy of this book. You 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…
+
|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>1909991430</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Brian Moses
+
|isbn=0192729934
|title=Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses
+
|title=Whizz Bang Orang-Utan
|rating=4
+
|author=John Foster
 +
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|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…
+
|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>1509838767</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Sue Hardy-Dawson
+
|isbn=0230745865
|title=Where Zebras Go
+
|title=In My Sky at Twilight
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Gaby Morgan (editor)
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|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.
+
|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>1910959316</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{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…
+
Move on to [[Newest Confident Readers Reviews]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910959200</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|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>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:00, 21 April 2021

0995647895.jpg

Review of

Sadie and the Sea Dogs by Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice

3.5star.jpg For Sharing

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

4star.jpg Anthologies

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

Stevenson Garden.jpg

Review of

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

2star.jpg Anthologies

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

Donaldson Treasury.jpg

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

Woollard Kipling.jpg

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

4.5star.jpg Children's Rhymes and Verse

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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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