Apes to Zebras: An A-Z of Shape Poems

Description

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

Roger Stevens is a poet, author, musician and artist. He has had more than twenty five books published and his poems have appeared in more than two hundred anthologies. Roger performs his poetry in schools, libraries and festivals and runs creative writing workshops for young and old. Roger founded the award-winning Poetry Zone website. Liz Brownlee is a poet and author and has had poems and children's poems included in over 60 anthologies. She uses many forms, including shape poetry, and is the author of Animal Magic, a collection of poems and facts about endangered animals. She lives in a village in the south west of England with her husband, her dog Lola, and her cat Milla. Sue Hardy-Dawson is a children's poet with several poems in current anthologies. She contributes regularly to new publications and has also worked on many community art projects both voluntarily and professionally. Her debut solo collection of poems, Where Zebras Go, published in Feb 2017.

An array of wonderful creatures feature in this captivating series of alphabet shape poems. From dinosaurs that are too big to fit on the page to mosquitos that are coming to get you, there's something to inform and delight children of all ages in this beautifully produced book. * The Guardian's Best New Children's Books * This is an inspiring collection that really highlights how fascinating shape poems can be - and the imagination is your only limit when deciding how to set out your own poem. I love this book and hope it really enthuses children for poetry - it certainly deserves to. * Parents in Touch * Featuring a full alphabetical array from the extraordinary and the exotic to the extinct and the non-existent from well-liked and recognised poets Liz Brownlee, Sue Hardy-Dawson & Roger Stevens, this will amaze, amuse and appeal to classes throughout the primary school and have them eagerly wanting to write their own shape poems. * The Reader Teacher, @MrEPrimary * Apes to Zebras is eye-catchingly illustrated in bright colours with trailing, undulating text forming the shapes of the beasts. And as the poems are short and snappy, the book is ideal for sharing with EYFS children. * QA Nursery * This is a book that will set children off on their own explorations of how words and images can be interlinked. * Brian Moses, Welcome to the Ssssssnake Hotel Blog * Liz Brownlee, Sue Hardy-Dawson and Roger Stevens have created a truly memorable poetry book in 'Apes to Zebras'. They have selected almost laboratory like, perfect words with which to sculpt each animal focus into an image. Every subject is analysed, realised and almost eulogised in its own beautiful poem. * Bookwagon * There is a beautiful simplicity in the text of the poems that allows you to appreciate the usage of words as a clear illustrative form... A fabulous resource for both home and school with tips for experimenting with your own shape poems. Enjoy! * Philippa Rae, Kidscene * It has an immediate pleasure and impact and then the little details start to draw attention to themselves and my grin just gets wider and wider, marvelling at the sheer invention on display. And isn't this what a great reading experience should be like? I want to put them all up over my classroom! * The Book Blog, North Somerset Teachers' Book Award * This beautifully illustrated book provides a new take on shape poems - which describe an object and are shaped the same as the object they describe - playing around with their form to great effect. * The Teacher Magazine * Don't miss this book of shape or 'concrete' animal poems by this accomplished triumvirate of children's poets. It is a wonderfully inventive A-Z, both restrained and lively, where every letter has at least one animal 'shape' poem. * Children's Books Ireland *