It comes out next year but I never want to read it again. What’s not to like?ĭear Ugly Sisters by Laura Mucha I’ve read this about 1,526,927 times now and I’m sick of it. The Same Inside: Poems about Empathy and Friendship by Roger Stevens, Liz Brownlee and Matt Goodfellow.īrilliant poems looking at important themes written by exceptional poets. She creates sketches, doodles and sculpts with words and crafts poems I wish I could write. Where Zebras Go by Sue Hardy-Dawson I don’t understand how Hardy-Dawson’s brain works, but I love it. Combine her words with Chris Riddell’s illustrations and you have a stonkingly good book. I wonder whether he spoke at all times in perfect metre and rhyme.Ī Kid in My Class by Rachel Rooney Rooney is a whizz with words and, as always, combines insight with technical rigour in her most recent collection. His poems seem so effortless that it feels like they just popped out of him while he brushed his teeth or washed the dishes. Predictive spelling keeps changing his name to Charles Casually – and I wonder whether there’s some truth in that. Selected Poems for Children by Charles Causley. This collection feels like he climbed into the minds of KS3 students and articulated their inner workings via poetry.

I’ve been reflecting on what makes a good collection recently and have concluded that an original and authentic voice plays a huge role. Child-centred, witty and technically brilliant. I’ve been reading a lot of his picture books lately and wanted to check back in with his poetry so I re-read this collection.

Heard It In The Playground by Allan Ahlberg. You can read and listen to some of Laura’s poetry here. Laura’s book about Love – Love Factually is non-fiction, and her debut collection is due out next year. In 2016, she won the Caterpillar Poetry Prize.

Laura’s poetry has been published in books, magazines and newspapers around the world, and she’s performed on BBC Radio, at festivals and in schools.

She is extraordinary fun to know and I can guarantee that in any room, you will always know where she is by the laughs. Now she spends most of her time playing with words. Laura Mucha worked as a face painter, studied flying trapeze, philosophy and psychology, and swam in Antarctica before becoming a lawyer.

Charles causley poems