Shortlisted for the Laugh Out Loud Awards - the UK's only prize for funny children's books A brilliant collection of poems by an exciting young poet, this book is perfect, whether you like poetry or not! 'When you read this book, the windows will burp and the grass will turn blue. That's how magic these poems are.' Michael Rosen Packed full of silly, funny, or downright hilarious poems (with a few serious ones mixed in) this brilliant collection from exciting young poet, Joshua Seigal is perfect for fans of Michael Rosen and anyone else who needs a giggle. If you like poetry, you'll like this book. And if you don't like poetry you'll LOVE it! With poems on every topic from the power of books to the joys of fried chicken, this collection is a fabulous mix of Joshua Seigal's subversive humour and insight into the world of children. With hilarious doodle style illustrations by Chris Piascik, if you don't like poetry after reading this, there's probably something wrong with you! Book band: Grey - Ideal for Age 8 - 9

"The novelist and poet Ben Lerner argues that our hatred of poetry is ultimately a sign of its nagging relevance"--

An award-winning poet offers a brilliant introduction to the joys--and challenges--of the genre In Don't Read Poetry, award-winning poet and literary critic Stephanie Burt offers an accessible introduction to the seemingly daunting task of reading, understanding, and appreciating poetry. Burt dispels preconceptions about poetry and explains how poems speak to one another--and how they can speak to our lives. She shows readers how to find more poems once they have some poems they like, and how to connect the poetry of the past to the poetry of the present. Burt moves seamlessly from Shakespeare and other classics to the contemporary poetry circulated on Tumblr and Twitter. She challenges the assumptions that many of us make about "poetry," whether we think we like it or think we don't, in order to help us cherish--and distinguish among--individual poems. A masterful guide to a sometimes confounding genre, Don't Read Poetry will instruct and delight ingénues and cognoscenti alike.

From the National Book Critics Circle Award–winning poet and critic: “A lovely book, full of joy and wisdom.” —The Baltimore Sun How to Read a Poem is an unprecedented exploration of poetry, feeling, and human nature. In language at once acute and emotional, Edward Hirsch describes why poetry matters and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message can make a difference. In a marvelous reading of verse from around the world, including work by Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath, among many others, Hirsch discovers the true meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts. “Hirsch has gathered an eclectic group of poems from many times and places, with selections as varied as postwar Polish poetry, works by Keats and Christopher Smart, and lyrics from African American work songs . . . Hirsch suggests helpful strategies for understanding and appreciating each poem. The book is scholarly but very readable and incorporates interesting anecdotes from the lives of the poets.” —Library Journal “The answer Hirsch gives to the question of how to read a poem is: Ecstatically.” —Boston Book Review “Hirsch’s magnificent text is supported by an extensive glossary and superb international reading list.” —Booklist “If you are pretty sure you don’t like poetry, this is the book that’s bound to change your mind.” —Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The World Doesn’t End

Beginning with basic terminology and techniques, Mayes shows how focusing on one aspect of a poem can help you to better understand, appreciate, and enjoy the reading and writing experience.

Packed full of silly, funny, or downright hilarious poems (with some serious ones mixed in), this new collection by Joshua Seigal (winner of the Laugh Out Loud Awards) is perfect for fans of Michael Rosen. 'Joshua Seigal is definitely my new favourite poet.' Books for Keeps 'Joshua Seigal is a rising star in the children's poetry world...' lovereading4kids With poems on every topic from demon cats to why you should NEVER forget your trousers, this is a must-have new collection from prize-winning poet Joshua Seigal. This book is a wonderful mix of subversive humour and brilliant insight into children's perspectives on the world. Get ready for the craziness to begin! Book Band: Brown - Ideal for ages 7+

"David Orr is no starry-eyed cheerleader for contemporary poetry; Orr’s a critic, and a good one. . . . Beautiful & Pointless is a clear-eyed, opinionated, and idiosyncratic guide to a vibrant but endangered art form, essential reading for anyone who loves poetry, and also for those of us who mostly just admire it from afar." —Tom Perrotta Award-winning New York Times Book Review poetry columnist David Orr delivers an engaging, amusing, and stimulating tour through the world of poetry. With echoes of Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, Orr’s Beautiful & Pointless offers a smart and funny approach to appreciating an art form that many find difficult to embrace.

An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry’s accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew Zapruder In Why Poetry, award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder takes on what it is that poetry—and poetry alone—can do. Zapruder argues that the way we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us from enjoying it. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when faced with it. Zapruder explores what poems are, and how we can read them, so that we can, as Whitman wrote, “possess the origin of all poems,” without the aid of any teacher or expert. Most important, he asks how reading poetry can help us to lead our lives with greater meaning and purpose. Anchored in poetic analysis and steered through Zapruder’s personal experience of coming to the form, Why Poetry is engaging and conversational, even as it makes a passionate argument for the necessity of poetry in an age when information is constantly being mistaken for knowledge. While he provides a simple reading method for approaching poems and illuminates concepts like associative movement, metaphor, and negative capability, Zapruder explicitly confronts the obstacles that readers face when they encounter poetry to show us that poetry can be read, and enjoyed, by anyone.

With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built-meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space. "Stunning" (Los Angeles Times). Index.

WINNER OF THE 2020 LAUGH OUT LOUD AWARDS Packed full of stupendously silly, fantastically funny and hysterically hilarious poems, this brilliant anthology is edited by dynamic poet, Joshua Seigal. Featuring a diverse range of contributors and some brand new poems from Joshua himself, this book is perfect for anyone who needs a giggle or a belly laugh! 'I think any reader would find it hard not only to avoid laughing, but to stop themselves reading the poems aloud – they are absolutely begging to be performed!' (Library Girl and Book Boy) Poets include: A.F. Harrold, Raymond Antrobus, Andy Seed, Sue Hardy-Dawson, Adisa, Kat Francois, James Carter, Jay Hulme and Lewis Carroll. Packed with laugh out loud illustrations by Tim Wesson, this follow up to I Don't Like Poetry (which was shortlisted for the 2017 Laugh Out Loud Awards) is a marvellous mixture of subversive humour and insight into the world of children.