From an experienced performance poet comes this anthology for youngsters to read aloud by themselves or with others. There are tongue-twisters, riddles, poems heading to a diminuendo or a crescendo, poems to perform loudly or quietly and animal poems to read in character. Prefacing each poem are ideas and tips which are useful at times, but in others, rather too obvious: ’In your chorus, try reading some lines as a group and some lines on your own. Really? I found the poems variable too. Some were poignant and moving as in ‘This Bear’ with its captive protagonist who has only ‘shuffled over rugged imagined mountains’ so far, but who ‘sighs out to freedom’ by the end. ‘From Space’ contains metaphors about our ‘blue marble’ of a planet, ‘tiny and vulnerable’ and the damage man has done to it almost too painful to read. Equally, ‘Don’t Look Now’ and ‘The Bones of Pampachiri’ startle the imagination and raise real chills. I loved ‘the soft rubbed corners of your mistakes’ in ‘Pencil Case’ and the cumulative effect of present participles as adjectives to describe New Delhi.
Between these highlights are more mundane offerings, including ‘a poem to make your audience laugh’ which I could not find funny and a poem with rhymes designed to ‘pop’ which paired ‘stars/far’ and ‘snow/grows’. Sadly the uniform font and size was unappealing too, but the illustrations were vibrant, colourful and full of impetus and energy. A pleasant anthology with a few gems.
Sue Barrett
Wide-Eyed ISBN 9780711263925. £6.99
