Messages A National Poetry Day Book

A poetry book to celebrate National Poetry Day 2016 with poems on the theme of messages from Matt Goodfellow, Rachel McCrum, Deborah Alma, Brian Moses, Liz Brownlee, Michaela Morgan, Jan Dean, Paul Cookson, Roger Stevens, Joseph Coelho, Joshua Seigal, Rachel Rooney, Sophie Herxheimer and Sally Crabtree. National Poetry Day is the annual mass celebration of poetry and all things poetical, a special day on which all are invited to discover and share the enjoyment of poems. We hope that the poems in this book - all inspired by this year's National Poetry Day theme of messages - will kindle an enthusiasm for poetry that continues to grow long after the day itself, Thursday 6 October 2016, has passed.

This gorgeous collection of animal poems from Roger Stevens, Liz Brownlee and Sue Hardy-Dawson will entrance and delight in equal measure. Featuring a full alphabet of animals, birds, and insects, with the odd extinct or imaginary creature thrown in, these beautiful shape poems are a perfect way to introduce children to poetry. Some funny, some serious, there is something here for everyone.Book band: Dark Blue

This feisty collection of poems is a celebration of the achievements of women and girls throughout history. Reaching the Stars is complied by national Poetry ADay Ambassadors and includes poems about Malala Yousafzai, Rosa Parks, Margaret Hamilton, Ada Lovelace, Helen Keller, Mary Shelley, Edith Cavell and many more. Packed with wonderfully diverse poems, this is the perfect gift for young history or poetry fans.

From National Poetry Day Ambassadors Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow and Roger Stevens comes an incredible anthology of poetry identifying ways we can Be the Change. These positive and upbeat poems will explore sustainability and the positive efforts being made to protect the planet and are perfect for starting conversations about looking after each other and our environment.

‘If poems were gifts, and in many ways they are, children will find plenty to absorb and amuse them in this bulging stocking of an anthology.’ Roger McGough From traditional verses by Christina Rossetti and William Blake to modern classics by Julia Donaldson and Benjamin Zephaniah, this heart-warming Christmas anthology will delight children and adults of all ages. All the wonders of the season are captured in 100 Best Christmas Poems for Children. Perfect for reading aloud with all the family or for children aged 8-12 to read to themselves, there are verses that will encourage you to reflect on the Christmas themes of joy, hope and peace for all the world, while also savouring the festive fun of everything else that Christmas brings – from the opening of the first Advent window to the tidying away of all the decorations on Twelfth Night. Edited and introduced by beloved poet Roger McGough, this enchanting children’s poetry book make a wonderful gift and keepsake and will be cherished by all who read it. Children will gain an appreciation for language and storytelling as the magic of Christmas is brought to life by this anthology that they’ll return to over and over again each year.

'Honest, unflinching and unforgettable... one of Britain's best writers' Stormzy 'You will come away bruised. You will come away bruised but this will give you poetry.' Raw and stark, the poems in Yrsa Daley-Ward's breakthrough collection strip down her reflections on the heart, life, the inner self, coming of age, faith and loss to their essence. They resonate to the core of experience. 'Yrsa's work is like holding the truth in your hands. A glorious living thing' Florence Welch 'yrsa daley-ward's 'bone' is a symphony of breaking and mending. an expert storyteller. of the rarest. and purest kind - daley-ward is uncannily attentive and in tune to the things beneath life. beneath the skin. beneath the weather of the everyday.' nayyirah waheed. author of salt. and nejma

Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book is a beautiful gift hardback collection of poetry with poems inspired by The Natural History Museum. It covers everything from the depths of space to the very centre of the earth - there are poems about the solar system, planet earth, oceans and rivers, birds, dinosaurs, fossils, wildlife, flowers, fungi, insects, explorers and palaeontologists. Each section includes an introduction and some footnotes about particularly interesting species. The museum has a collection of over eighty million objects and behind the scenes of its twenty-eight galleries crowd kilometres of preserved specimens, libraries of rare books and artworks, wonders gathered on some of the most famous voyages in history, rooms packed with pressed plants, warehouses teeming with stuffed animals and freezers full of DNA. As well as a museum, it is a state-of-the-art centre for discovery with over three hundred resident scientists and over ten thousand visiting researchers each year, investigating everything from dinosaurs to life on other planets. The collection is made up of brand new and classic poems and is illustrated with botanical drawings and engravings from the museum’s collections. This fantastic collection speaks of the wonder of nature and shows us why we need to look after our incredible planet.

CELEBRATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY, THE OFFICIAL NATIONAL POETRY DAY COLLECTION. CURATED AND INTRODUCED BY CERYS MATTHEWS. Tell Me the Truth About Life is an indispensable anthology which celebrates poetry's power to tap into the truths that matter. Curated and introduced by Cerys Matthews, this collection draws on the wisdom of crowds: featuring poems nominated for their insight into truth by a range of ordinary and extraordinary people: from Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman, to sporting heroes and world-famous musicians, teachers, artists and politicians. Their choices include contemporary work by Yrsa Daley-Ward, John Cooper Clarke and Kei Miller alongside classics by W H Auden, Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas. Here you will find poems to revive the spirit, ballads to mobilize and life-lines to hold you safe in the dark. Compiled for National Poetry Day's twenty-fifth anniversary, Tell Me the Truth About Life is a book that reminds us we are never completely alone in our search to glimpse the truth. Containing nominations from a number of high-profile poetry lovers and poets, including Michael Morpurgo, Mark Gatiss, Dolly Alderton, and Helen Sharman, among others.