Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: Chris Riddell
Publisher: Walker
Date of Publication: September 2015
Format: Hardback
Source: My own copy
This
book involves poems written by former children’s laureate Michael
Rosen and illustrated by current children’s laureate Chris Riddell.
It is designed for especially young children and so features poems
that are easy to read and fun to participate with such as “The
Button Bop” and “Hello Goodbye”. The poems feature a lot of
repetition that very young children will appreciate and there are
funny poems as well as more deep and meaningful ones that will appeal
to all ages. These poems encourage the child to join in when they are
read aloud and will inspire a life-long love of poetry.
All
of the poems are simplistic yet entertaining at the same time, and
the light-hearted illustrations that Riddell provides match them very
well. The characters that appear on each page, such as the
multi-coloured monkeys in “Hello Goodbye”, will appeal to
children and their parents as well. The design and layout of the book
is excellent and the colours and fonts help the poems and pictures to
stand out. Overall, this is a must-have for young children and their
parents, as well as anyone who likes to have a fun poem to read aloud
and join in with.
Title: Read Me... series
Author: Gaby Morgan, Louise Bolongara, Nick Toczek and Paul Cookson
Illustrator: Georgie Ripper
Publisher: Macmillan
Date of publication: Various
Format: Paperback
Source: My own copies
The
“Read Me…” series is designed with schools in mind and each
collection features 366 poems, one for every day of the year. The
first two books are “Read Me 1” and “Read Me 2”, but now
other books have been released for the series that explore different
types of poems. For example, “Read Me First” includes poems
designed for younger children, “Read Me And Laugh” includes funny
poems and “Read Me Out Loud!” includes poems that can be read out
by one or more persons.
All
of the poetry collections feature a variety of poems from old to new
in many different forms. The collections include works by well known
and less well known poets as well as many by anonymous authors. The
poems included are engaging and will appeal to different people
whether they are old and young. I feel that it’s also a treat to
have a different poem to read every day. It gives the reader a chance
to discover different poets and styles and will inspire them to
search out more of the same elsewhere. Additionally, there are
illustrations by Georgie Ripper included in “Read Me First” that
children will love for their appealing nature. For these reasons,
these books are a must-have for schools, families and people who just
like to have a good poem to read everyday.
