POETRY - do your children read it/like it ?

[MaryAnnSingleton]

This is triggered by UnquietDad's thread about writers in school ... I always wanted to try to get a poet into school to do a performance/workshop - children's poetry is fantastic,yet when I trawl bookshops I'm disappointed in the range of poetry books stocked. I speak from slightly biased perspective as a lot of my work as an illustrator has been poetry anthologies or collections and I have to say that it's by far the nicest thing to work on. Poetry can be funny,sad and thought provoking and I'm curious as to whether children get to read much of it in school.

dd, 6, is doing Spike milligan at school and really loving it

do you know which poets he likes ? my personal favourite is Roger Stevens

Has anyone got 'Because a Fire was in my Head' - edited by Michael M orpurgo and illustrated by Quentin Blake ? is fabulous and includes Benjamin Zephaniah ; Yeats; Wilfred Owen ;John Lennon; Spike Milligan;John Masefield ...love it.

Mine love Burns, but their favourite is Lady of Shallott - I think the whole girly Arthurian thing does it for them, but I don't care, poetry's poetry, as long as they're learning to appreciate language!

Will watch this thread with interest - keen to see what works for everyone else

DD was given this book with accompanying audio tapes when she was about 3. The tapes were favourites to listen to at bedtime.

She loved it! It was the starting point of a real love of poems for 3 or 4 years. Now shes 8 she probably reads more stories than poems but still automatically grabs a poetry book when we go to the library.

She doesn't have a particular favourite poet that I know of though.

I think any form of writer, poet or artist in schools is an excellent idea

that looks as though it's a lovely book betty...nice illustrations too

that too - must be a series !

All three love poetry, especially and rather surprisingly DS1 who is "2 kool for skool", bless 'im.
He goes for funny, rhyming stuff think he likes the rhythm, it being similair to rap!!

my dd1 is 5-nearly 6 and really loves some of michael rosen's poems- and also nick sharrat's antholgies. nonsense verse seems to be a favourite.

yes, rap poems a good way to interest boys I think !

Ds is suddenly taking an interest in this MaryAnn - I think as others have said, rhythm rather than rhyme is what appeals to boys on the whole
That said, ds came home rather glumly and said he'd had a wigging from his miserable fecker teacher for co-authoring a poem with a 1, 3, 2, 4 rhyming scheme throughout. Apparently only 2, 4 was required
Here at home we have Rattle Bag, School Bag, Verse and Worse, some Wendy Cope, Charles Causley (hard to beat for older children IMO..."Watch where he comes walking, Out of the Christmas flame, Dancing, double-talking; Herod is his name"...bbbrrrr) and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Of all these ds likes Wendy Cope best
Love the sound of Because a Fire Was in My Head - and must get some Spike Milligan in too
In fact this thread has given me a prod to cash in like mad on this recent interest

that's great Marina - do check out Roger Stevens and Paul Cookson

We (ds 9-in-April, dd 7, Bink aged 45 11/12 & Binkherr aged 46) are VERY keen on poetry

We especially like Michael Rosen (has he not been mentioned before? usually he's the first one) ("Bathroom Fiddler" (which is not rude by the way) being our great favourite) & Lewis Carroll (I've read Alice in W'land to them, now on Alice Through L'glass) - they chose totally of their own accord at Christmas to devise an adaptation of "You are Old Father William" => "You are OLD Father Christmas" as a recital for grandparents - dd as an importunate elf & ds as a wonderful beard-shaking F. Christmas - "Yet you balanced a REINDEER [snort snort giggle] on the end of your NOSE" - etc.

And Edward Lear, and Ted Hughes. And whoever wrote "To amuse/emus/on warm summer nights/kiwis/do wiwis/from spectacular heights" - probably Roger McGough I should think.

We also read every poem card on the Tube we can find - but! Old Possum is one I'd forgotten & we haven't got! Aha!

(dh likes slim short-publication-run things he picks up from ebay. James Lasdun & such.)

My 7 and 6yo dds like poems, I think the ones we have which they like best are Spike Milligan's Milliganimals (and other poems), Hillaire Belloc's cautionary tales (Matilda told such dreadful lies....), some of the old popular ones like the Jumblies. We have a Big book of nonsense which has lots of those old ones in.

Also we have a couple of modern anthologies for slightly younger children called things like the Flying Pig and Twinkle Twinkle chocolate bar which they like.

Oh gawd, Bink... you've just reminded me. When I was a guide (so about - what? - 13) I wrote a parody of 'You are old Father William' about one of our guide leaders. Bless her... she must have been about 40 at the time - i.e. the age I am now.

I love poetry and this thread is making me realise that I should read it more with the dds....

Oh, interesting thread. DD is very interested in poetry at the moment, makes up her own little rhymes. Will look for the Puffin book that BetttySpaghetti linked to.

Anything else that you would recommend for younger children? DD is almost 6, DS 3.5yo.

for very young children there's a Gervase Phinn collection which I am a bit biased about,having illustrated it

feel a bit sheepish about linking this...
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=what+i+like++gervase+phinn&G o.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

here is Because a Fire was in my Head

Have ordered the Gervase Phinn one from Amazon. Looks great, love the "humorous and wacky illustrations"