My husband was in Wales recently for a conference and heard Welsh poet Gillian Clarke read there. I knew I’d heard of Clarke; in fact, I found her on The Childrens Poetry Archive website where you can hear her read the poem Legend. I was therefore happy to find at my local library a book of poems edited by Clarke that is very appropriate for Halloween. The Whispering Room Haunted Poems (illustrated by Justin Todd, Kingfisher, 1996) is a collection of poetry chosen by Clarke on the theme of ‘haunting.’ As Clarke says in the preface, “Haunting is all about imagination, and the best imaginers are poets and children.”
My daughter and I committed ourselves to reading a poem or two each night out of this anthology (while finishing off The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson!) leading up to Halloween. I find reading poetry with her helpful in teaching her about poetic language and concepts such as rhyme. I let her pick out the poems she would like to try and then we have a go at them. Flipping through the book together, I was quite struck by Justin Todd’s arresting illustrations, some of which drew me to certain poems.
What books are you reading to your child for Halloween? Any good poetry titles? Do share and spread the word! Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Diane Mayr at Random Noodling.
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British poet, Judith Nicholls, has compiled a wonderful book of poems for children called Someone I Like: Poems About People (illustrated by Giovanni Manna.) I discovered Nicholls work through The Children’s Poetry Archive , a wonderful website chock-a-block with recommendations for poetry for children. In Someone I Like, Nicholls has assembled poems by various authors that look at human relationships in ways that children can identify with. There are poems about friendship and about one’s parents. There are poems about siblings, and about aunties and grandmothers. What I liked about the poems were how emotionally frank many of them were. In “Urgent Note to My Parents,” the child speaker says:
Don’t ask me to do what I can’t do
Only ask me to do what I can
Don’t ask me to be what I can’t be
Only ask me to be what I am
The accompanying illustration of a fed-up looking girl in overalls with a pencil in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other is very fitting! In reading this book to my daughter, we were able to explore terrains of emotion that were new and sometimes surprising. Poems, for example, about broken friendships and about a girl who tells her granny “you’ll have to be dying soon” were arresting and provocative. Such poems engage the reader and require a response, and that is what good poetry should do for parent and child alike. Compiler Nicholl understands this notion deeply and brings her experience as a poet, parent and grandparent to bear on her lively selections.
Someone I Like is published by an innovative press called Barefoot Books. Their vision is to produce books that “celebrate the world’s diversity, encourage children’s independent spirits, and build their enthusiasm for reading, creativity and discovery.” Someone I Like certainly fulfills that vision!
Poetry Friday this week is hosted here by Anastasia Suen.
My husband was in Wales recently for a conference and heard Welsh poet Gillian Clarke read there. I knew I’d heard of Clarke; in fact, I found her on The Childrens Poetry Archive website where you can hear her read the poem Legend. I was therefore happy to find at my local library a book of poems edited by Clarke that is very appropriate for Halloween. The Whispering Room Haunted Poems (illustrated by Justin Todd, Kingfisher, 1996) is a collection of poetry chosen by Clarke on the theme of ‘haunting.’ As Clarke says in the preface, “Haunting is all about imagination, and the best imaginers are poets and children.”