All Kinds of Poems for All Kinds of Kids

£7.99

Giants. Goblins. Graveyard whispers.

Pirates, rumours and tongue-twisters.

Football. Friends. Great-Great Grandad Ben.

Astronauts and aliens.

David’s poetry has been entertaining children for over thirty years. This book brings together much-loved and brand new poems, perfect for reading alone or aloud: spooky poems, cheeky poems, quiet and outrageous poems. Here are poems about the moon and poems that make you think, as well as good advice on how to deal with a giant and where the worst place to find an alien might be.

Illustrated by Ted Schofield.

Read a Sample

Published November 2021

What Writers and Critics Think

  • Quirky and quizzical, David Harmer writes wonderful poems for all kinds of kids in all manner of moods, and he really does know how to find the rhymes.

    Harriet Tarlo
  • If the mark of a great poem is something you wish you’d written then this collection is full of them.

    Paul Cookson
  • His work has appeared in just about all of the 50 or so anthologies that I've compiled ... an engaging performer equally at home with both serious and humorous poetry.

    Brian Moses

Description

If I was shipwrecked on a desert island and could only have one book of poetry, it would be this one. – Roger Stevens

 

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from the Introduction

by David Harmer

I was a lucky boy because I grew up in a house full of books and poetry with grown-ups who read to me. I started reading and writing poems and stories then and I haven’t stopped. I remember when I was about nine, I learned ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ and ‘Jabberwocky’ (by Lewis Carrol) and performed them to the class. I chose those two because they were funny, using fantastic words and telling strange stories. I was always a bit of a show-off and I still love reading poems to people.

There were very few poems for children around in The Olden Days, but now there are loads of wonderful poetry books to enjoy. I think poems are clever lists that turn ordinary things into magical things, so if I look at a school yard I might think, ‘What if a space ship full of slimy aliens landed here right now? What if my table came to life as a huge monster? Is my best mate really a robot?’ Then I decide what kind of poem I need to write to tell that story. Sometimes poems ask serious questions, sometimes they just rock and roll along with loads of rhymes and bounce. Others are twisty and tiny, some don’t rhyme at all and some make different shapes. I love them all.

When I’m asked for tips on becoming a writer what I always say is this: read a lot of books and write a lot of poems. Then, read them to your friends and to the grown-ups too. Have fun doing it! Poems are there to make your words dance and sing, to make them thoughtful, to make them change the world around you. Make some of your own, stand up and shout them out as loudly as you can!

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About David Harmer

David Harmer is best known as a children’s writer. He began working in primary schools in 1973. For quite a while he was a class teacher and then a headteacher but he spent many happy years visiting schools, festivals, universities, front rooms and theatres all over the country, working with children and grown-ups too. Sometimes he was with his friend Paul Cookson in their popular performance duo Spill The Beans. During this time he has published ten poetry collections and his work has appeared in over 130 anthologies for children.

About Ted Schofield

Ted started drawing as a boy by copying cartoons. Later, he learned to draw and paint things he could see in the world around him. Ted still paints pictures on canvas but he loves drawing from imagination, often inspired by something funny, and usually on an iPad.

After completing a degree in Fine Art he became an art teacher and then took another degree, this time in illustration. He loves playing the cello, singing in a choir, reading and talking about books, cooking (and eating even more).

Additional information

Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 0.6 cm
Format

Paperback

ISBN

978-1-912196-39-5

Pages

82

Publication Year

November 2021