A brilliantly illustrated collection of 366 hilarious poems to keep you laughing all year round!
From rib-ticklingly funny to wryly witty, each poem in this uplifting collection is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and is perfect for reading aloud to share even more side-splitting hilarity with family and friends. Whether it’s a poem about socks or spaniels, eggs or elephants, this bright and brilliant collection will bring you cheer and laughter every day.
The spectacular range of poems for children includes work by John Agard, Maya Angelou, Hilaire Belloc, Brian Bilston, Lucille Clifton, Wendy Cope, Roald Dahl, Edward Lear, Spike Milligan, Ogden Nash, Grace Nichols, Jack Prelutsky, Michael Rosen, Christina Rossetti, Benjamin Zephaniah and many more.
A wonderful gift for all ages, this beautifully produced anthology includes luxurious cloth binding and ribbon marker.
If you've had anything to do with children's books the last few Christmases, you've seen Nosy Crow's poetry collections. A4, hardback, glossy paper, colour illustrations - they're amazingly beautiful. Whale may be the best yet (I do have a soft spot for Tiger myself!)
Each collection has its own hook; Seed was nature poems, Tiger was animals, Everything was all by women and girls, and now Whale is humorous poetry. I've always found poetry a bit hit and miss personally, it's not my favourite genre, but I tore through this. There's a huge mix of styles, from haiku to multi-verse, rhyming to free form and everything in between, which kept it from getting boring. Some days have only a few lines, some have much longer, so over a year you wouldn't know what you were getting!
I love that each chapter has an index so you get an idea of what's coming up before you start. It's something not many books of this type bother with. The first line index and author index at the back are very helpful as well. (So much Spike Milligan!) The grouping of the poems is done really well - ie there's spooky poems around Hallowe'en and holiday ones in the summer, but there are countless mini themes as well, a spread that's all about cats or one featuring several poems where the sounds are the important thing. It's so clever.
I've left my favourite aspect till last (Sorry, every other aspect, I do love you as well, but what can I say?) The illustrations are absolutely amazing. Many of the spreads have three or four poems on, and the illustrations match everything without seeming contrived or strange. It's actual real life magic and I can't get enough of it.
I can't wait to be able to sell this, and I can't see how they'll better it next year - but they will. They always do.
A Whale of a Time publishes on the 14th of September, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment