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|*]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Children's Rhymes and Verse]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Allie Esiri
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|isbn=0995647895
|title= A Poem for Every Day of the Year 
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|title=Sadie and the Sea Dogs
|rating= 4
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|author=Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice
|genre= Anthologies
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|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=For Sharing
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509860541</amazonuk>
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|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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Roger McGough
+
|isbn=Esiri Poem
|title=80
+
|title=A Poem for Every Day of the Year
|rating=5
+
|author=Allie Esiri
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|rating=4
|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.
+
|genre=Anthologies
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014138882X</amazonuk>
+
|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.
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Morpurgo (editor)
 
|title=Greatest Magical Stories
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|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
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sarah Webb and Steve McCarthy
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|isbn=Stevenson_Garden
|title=A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea: Favourite Rhymes from an Irish Childhood
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|title=A Child's Garden of Verses
 +
|author=Robert Louis Stevenson
 
|rating=2
 
|rating=2
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|genre=Anthologies
|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.
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847177948</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies
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{{Frontpage
|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)
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|isbn=Donaldson_Treasury
|rating=4.5
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|title=A Treasury of Songs
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
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|author=Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785942719</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Neal Zetter and Chris White
 
|title=Here Come the Superheroes
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse  
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|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.
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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>1909991465</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Peter Bently and Charles Fuge
+
|isbn=Woollard_Kipling
|title=A Home Full of Friends
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|title=Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories
 +
|author=Elli Woollard and Marta Altes
 
|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.
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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>1910959588</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Hilda Offen
+
|isbn=Harris_Rhyming
|title=Message from the Moon
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|title=I'm Just No Good At Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups
|rating=4
+
|author=Chris Harris and Lane Smith
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|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…
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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>1909991430</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Brian Moses
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|isbn=Goss_600
|title=Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses
+
|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)
|rating=4
+
|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|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=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>1509838767</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Sue Hardy-Dawson
+
|isbn=0956503527
|title=Where Zebras Go
+
|title=There's A Lion In My Bathroom
 +
|author=Giles Paley-Phillips
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|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.
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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>1910959316</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=George Szirtes and Tim Archbold
+
|isbn=0192731831
|title=How to be a Tiger
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|title=See You Later, Escalator
 +
|author=John Foster
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|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>
+
|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.
''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…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910959200</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Allie Esiri
+
|isbn=1849392021
|title= A Poem for Every Night of the Year
+
|title=There's An Alien In The Classroom
|rating= 4
+
|author=Gervase Phinn
|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
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|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.
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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>1847177387</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gavin Puckett and Tor Freeman
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|isbn=1408304589
|title=Colin the Cart Horse
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|title=The Orchard Book Of Nursery Rhymes For Your Baby
|rating=5
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|author=Penny Dann
|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
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447286979</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Phil Allcock and Gina Maldonado
 
|title=Animal Magic
 
 
|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=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>1848862326</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Elli Woollard
+
|isbn=0141324511
|title=The Secret Pirate (Swashbuckle Lil: The Secret Pirate)
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|title=Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things
|rating=4
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|author=Michael Rosen
|genre= Emerging Readers
 
|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
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405283343</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Pip Jones
 
|title=Squishy McFluff: Seaside Rescue!
 
 
|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
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405280867</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=A A Milne and E H Shepard
 
|title=When We Were Very Young
 
|rating=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!
+
|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>1405280859</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Clement C Moore and Max Marshall
+
|isbn=033051086X
|title= The Night Before Christmas
+
|title=The World At Our Feet
|rating= 5
+
|author=Paul Cookson
|genre= Children's Rhymes and Verse
 
|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
 
|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.
+
|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>184780618X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jules Nilsson
+
|isbn=0192729934
|title=The Hounds of Falsterbo
+
|title=Whizz Bang Orang-Utan
|rating=4
+
|author=John Foster
|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?
+
|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>1783440473</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tony Ross
 
|title=Playtime Rhymes
 
|rating=4.5
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783440481</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Roger McGough, Michael Rosen and Korky Paul (illustrator)
 
|title=You Tell Me!
 
|rating=2.5
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847804446</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Danielle Wright (editor) and Mique Moriuchi (illustrator)
+
|isbn=0230745865
|title=My Village: Rhymes from Around the World
+
|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=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?
+
|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>1847806279</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Walter de la Mare
 
|title=Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes
 
|rating=3
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571313892</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Evangeline Lilly and Johnny Fraser-Allen
 
|title=The Squickerwonkers
 
|rating=4
 
|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…
 
|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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
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

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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

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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

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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

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