Newest Children's Rhymes and Verse Reviews

Review of Sadie and the Sea Dogs by Maureen Duffy and Anita Joice For Sharing Sadie's mother always said that she was a dreamer, her mind never on what she should be doing. She lives by the River Thames at Greenwich and she loves to spend hours at The Maritime Museum or gazing at Cutty Sark. Her class had gone one rainy afternoon When all the houses cowered in the gloom, To the Maritime Museum. Her imagination was fired. She'd love to sail the oceans on an ancient sailing ship and went back regularly. One day she fell asleep under a glass case (it's the one where Nelson's Trafalgar breeches are on show) and missed the closing bell and the attendant's warning shout. When she woke (hard floors don't make comfy beds) she was in the midst of an adventure that she could never have imagined in a world of dolphins, pirates, mermaids and treasure. Full Review

Review of A Poem for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri Anthologies For those who do not read much poetry, for those who do not know where to start, this is a fun and easy commitment to take on. Reading a poem a day does not take long, mere minutes, and with over three-hundred poems in here there's bound to be a poem that speaks to each reader directly. Full Review

Review of A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson Anthologies Robert Louis Stevenson was a very versatile writer; he delved deep into the human psyche when he wrote The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde but he did not restrict himself to representations of the gothic and the persecuted. He also wrote brilliant children's adventure stories such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but, again, he did not restrict himself to prose writing because here he demonstrates his ability to write poetry. Full Review

Review of A Treasury of Songs by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Children's Rhymes and Verse Some people have all the skills, not only is Julia Donaldson one of the most successful children's authors, but she can also carry a tune. For the past few years, she has adapted many of her most popular stories into songs and plays them during open readings, or releases them as part of a songbook. For the first time, A Treasury of Songs brings together several of her books in one omnibus and it also has a CD too of Donaldson singing the songs. Full Review

Review of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories by Elli Woollard and Marta Altes Children's Rhymes and Verse Now, whatever our age, there are probably a few books that we have all encountered at some point in our childhoods. They have stood the test of time to such an extent that they have become a piece of our culture common to so many of us, and are known throughout the world. One of them is by Rudyard Kipling, who brought a child's sense of wonder and his own Victorian absurdist set of explanations to play in a dozen examples of warm whimsy. In shrugging off evolution he got to convey how the rhino skin is so ill-fitting and rumpled, how the whale learnt he cannot eat humans, and how the elephant got such a thing as his trunk. In doing so he entertained his young daughter, not knowing she would die as a child long before he produced a book-length collection – and way before he saw something into print that has lasted ever since. Just in case these tales are not for your young audience yet (and it won't be long, trust me), you can start them in early with this lovely and bright adaptation. Full Review

Review of I'm Just No Good At Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups by Chris Harris and Lane Smith Children's Rhymes and Verse In the sniffy world of literary poetry, people seem to be able to knock together a dozen verses and get an audience of twenty people to buy a pamphlet, and they call themselves published authors. You get a similar thing at times with poetry for the young – most poetry books, after all, have a lot more blank space in them than routine volumes, and people compile their best arrays of very few words in between two covers and bingo, they have a book, and twenty minutes later bingo, you've read it. That's most certainly not the case here, for this is crammed with what has to be considered a major outpouring of wit and rhyme. And whatever age you are, and whatever experience with verse you may have, this will not seem to you like someone's first book of poetry. Full Review

Review of Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies Children's Rhymes and Verse Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same. Full Review

Review of There's A Lion In My Bathroom by Giles Paley-Phillips Children's Rhymes and Verse This collection of nonsense poetry takes in all sorts of subjects, from wannabe magicians to armpits, and from failed cowboys to a girl with springs for feet. It's all very silly, all very nonsensical, and good fun. A proportion of profits are being donated to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Full Review

Review of See You Later, Escalator by John Foster Children's Rhymes and Verse Always a sucker for a good poetry anthology here at Bookbag, we've enjoyed two previous collections from John Foster. See You Later, Escalator continues in the same vein, with poems from the likes of Tony Mitton, Michael Rosen, Michelle Magorian and Brian Patten. Full Review

Review of There's An Alien In The Classroom by Gervase Phinn Children's Rhymes and Verse There's An Alien In The Classroom is a collection of school-based poems and poems aimed at school-age children. Taking in all forms, from limericks and cautionary verse to acrostics and haiku, it offers a broad overview of poetry. With themes including school, families, seasons, Bonfire Night, Nativity plays and going to the dentist, there's something to appeal to every child. Full Review

Review of The Orchard Book Of Nursery Rhymes For Your Baby by Penny Dann Children's Rhymes and Verse All your favourite nursery rhymes are here, from Hickory Dickory Dock, through Little Bo Peep and Three Blind Mice, to Sing A Song Of Sixpence. With over sixty nursery rhymes to choose from, all the big names are presented in a beautiful compendium that you'll treasure for years. Full Review

Review of Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things by Michael Rosen Children's Rhymes and Verse When he was little, Michael Rosen's dad remembered all the bad things he'd done and reminded him of them when appropriate, so Michael imagined he'd written them all down in a Big Book of Bad Things. Here he presents the eponymous poem, as well as many many other tales of childhood, from the horrors of being a second late to school, to making a raft, to going to a café. Some bad, some sad, some quirky, some funny, some touching, some light-hearted, all wonderful. Full Review

Review of The World At Our Feet by Paul Cookson Children's Rhymes and Verse With the World Cup just around the corner, football is on everyone's lips. Paul Cookson, Poet in Residence at the National Football Museum, has compiled the best football poems for young children. Full Review

Review of Whizz Bang Orang-Utan by John Foster Children's Rhymes and Verse Subtitled rhymes for the very young, you know what you're getting with Whizz Bang Orang-Utan. It's a poetry anthology, with sweet poems about kids, what they get up to, and of course whizzing and banging orang-utans. Full Review

Review of In My Sky at Twilight by Gaby Morgan (editor) Children's Rhymes and Verse Off the back of the success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series there has been a boom in vampire novels aimed at teenagers. In My Sky at Twilight is perhaps one of the most unusual books to come out of this craze as it is a collection of love poetry aimed at teenage fans of the series. Full Review

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