Karen's Clan

Here's this month's loot from the library! (If you're wanting book reviews for yourself, check out Books on my Bedside Table)

This clan has been in a poetry mood this month - perhaps it's all the odd rainy days Cape Town's experiencing in November, and cold snaps that calls for hot cups of tea, biscuits and time on the couch under blankets!

We've loved this anthology! This anthology is cleverly split into sections, beginning with "Nursery rhymes and first poems", then "rhymes and poems for the young", "poems for the older children", and "older poems and classic poetry", all sumptuously illustrated. There's a little something in here for every member of our family, and I've enjoyed snatching a few moments with this book myself - brings back many memories from university days!

We also enjoyed the Usborne Anthology (but if I'm honest not as much as the one above), which had a pleasant mix of old and new poems...

The following two short anthologies form part of a "Read Me Poetry" series which are great either to be read to children or for early readers to begin dipping into themselves. They're great for one sitting of poetry if you will, and each book has a theme. 

"What's Under your Hat" is a collection of riddles and mystery poems, like this one:

 Although it runs

it cannot walk:

although it turns 

it can't go back.

although it falls

It cannot break:

Although it calls

It cannot speak.

William Soutar

... and this one below is a collection of songs and chants (despite the cover, there's nothing sinister in here!)

And who can forget the great Cats musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber? That musical made this poem by TS Elliot come alive for me, and finding this in the library was great fun! I love Axel Scheffler as an illustrator (He illustrated "The Gruffalo" and many of Julia Donaldson's other works), and this was just such fun. (Older kids might want to try their hand at drawing each of the cats as you read it to them, or giving your own can a personality and a name?

This lovely book for all our children who love cats and kittens, is an incredible true story, and a touching one at that (go on over here to find out more)...

And every little girl who is fond of teddy bears will love this beautifully illustrated story - it's made me want to have a teddy bear's picnic!