Often when I think about poetry for children, I think it’s a bit worthy and well, dull. It’s for learning by rote and reciting at school assemblies or for use as a handy ink exercise. Well, these two books definitely challenge these assumptions.
Michael Rosen’s A Great Big Cuddle is packed with thirty-five wonderfully fun verses for preschool children and can be found in the picture-book box in the children’s area. They are a delight to read aloud and will keep children enthralled with the wordplay and strong rhyme and rhythmic cadences. Which, I realise, makes it all seem a bit worthy again! Don’t be alarmed, it is anything but. Rosen covers topics ranging from parties, learning to read, food and eating, anger, friendship and just sheer fun and silliness. Every page is illustrated by Riddell’s imaginative and daring colourful pictures. My son was given this book when he was just two years old, and it was his first introduction to poetry. He is nearly ten now but will still pick it up and can quote several of the poems. He would say he is a poetry fan and I’m sure this book opened the door to poetry for him.
Another wonderfully exciting poetry book that the library has on its shelves for children is Poems to Perform which is a collection of poems assembled by Julia Donaldson, written by herself and others. As it suggests, this is for older children who can read for themselves. It is a sort of anthology and while there seems to be a surfeit of poetry anthologies, this one is a good one – by turns we have fun, clever, thoughtful and imaginative poems and it spans time, places, events and situations to tempt all children. Julia Donaldson has selected them as a group of poems that are ideal for group recitation, but they are successful as poems being read alone, aloud or quietly in a corner. There are some big names in poetry and the literary world that add a bit of gravitas to the contents page – for example Edward Lear, Roger McGough, WH Auden and RL Stevenson – but their offerings are far from dull or the dreaded worthy. This is another book which would be a good place to start in introducing poetry to children – plenty of variety to draw them in and lots of fun.
