Today we hear from Bookbabbler Helen…

Now you see me, now you…, I don’t want an avocado for an Uncle and The Humpback’s Wail: poetry by Chrissie Gittins

Erin and I have spent several occasions reading various poems in these three books and it makes an interesting change from reading stories. The poems come in almost every form imaginable from the more traditional stanzas with a definite rhyme-scheme, to more free-form collections of poetic and descriptive language, via limericks, clerihews and shape poems.  Whenever we sit down to read them, Erin flicks through the book to find something which catches her interest, which could either be a title, an illustration or the way the text is arranged on the page.  She has her particular favourites which include Sam, Sam, quite contrary and I don’t want an avocado for an Uncle but generally she enjoys listening to the words being read aloud in whatever poems we choose to read.

The poems vary enormously in theme which make the books attractive to children whose thought-processes and imagination take the same leaps and twists.  Some of the poems are humerous, such as I don’t want an avocado for an Uncle and Iris Upsidaisy (about someone who has long corkscrew curls with a mind of their own – a bit like an exaggerated version of Erin’s own hair!), others are sad or wistful, e.g. The way he used to be and I wish I was Gillian Costigan and some are simply everyday thoughts and ideas which explore the use and sound of language as they are described, such as Food Sense which discusses the way we can respond to food using each of our senses.  Some of the poems might have a different significance to adults than to children – Erin found Lou’s Pyjama Uniform, about a girl who wears her school uniform under her nightie because her bedroom is too cold and her mother is never around to notice, very amusing, whereas I found it quite sad and thought-provoking.  Often they are conversations starters for different reasons, either to discuss the language or the themes behind them which are not fully explained.

These books have been useful to us in several ways – firstly because as our children become more confident at reading they are keen to read for themselves which can mean less time spent reading together unless we make the effort to continue it (usually at bedtime at the moment), but poetry really needs to be read aloud, which requires an audience and encourages reading together and we have found time to do this at different times of the day.  The poems can be dipped into at any time so we’ve had time to read a few and talk about them when it wouldn’t be possible to read a story or a chapter of a book.  Also, the poetry – whilst being very accessible for young children in terms of theme – uses some new words and challenging language which leads to conversations about the themes and ideas afterwards, for example the Birds poems which use various collective nouns for individual birds that, strung together, create a piece which almost has a double meaning and led to us talking not only about collective nouns but how language can be used to mean different things at different times.

We have really enjoyed reading these collections together and no doubt will continue to do so in the future.

Thanks, Helen, and thanks to Chrissie for sending us copies to review. You can buy them here now..