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On the Move: Poems About Migration

by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake

Interest age: 9 to 12
Reading age: 9+

Published by Walker Books, 2020

  • Around the world
  • Historical
  • Poetry and rhyme

About this book

This emotive poetry anthology from former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, is divided into four sections, each exploring a different aspect of migration. It opens with Family and Friends, a series of heartfelt, and sometimes amusing, ruminations on Rosen’s childhood as part of a Polish-Jewish family in post-war London. The next group of poems, entitled The War, are inspired by his parents’ and grandparents’ memories of the Second World War. The Migrants in Me section explores the fate of his ‘missing’ Jewish relatives who disappeared in Nazi Germany. Finally, On the Move Again draws together Rosen’s thoughts about migration today, in particular the plight of refugees who flee the hardships of their homelands to begin anew elsewhere.

Enhanced by timeless pen and ink drawings from fellow former Children’s Laureate, Quentin Blake, this is a deeply moving, enduring poetry collection. In an insightful introduction, Rosen describes migration as an intrinsic part of human history, which has led to the development of richly diverse societies around the world. For readers who wish to further explore the issues raised, there are suggestions of organisations which support refugees, as well as sources of information on the Holocaust, at the end of the book.

About the author

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults. His first degree in English Literature and Language was from Wadham College, Oxford and he went on to study for an MA at the University of Reading and a PhD at the former University of North London, now London Metropolitan.

He is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London where he co-devised and teaches critical approaches to reading on an MA in Children’s Literature, having done the same at Birkbeck, University of London. He has taught on MA courses in universities since 1994.

He was the Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has published over 200 books for children and adults, including the recent bestseller Many Different Kinds of Love and On The Move.

About the illustrator

Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and read English at Cambridge, before attending Chelsea Art College. He has won many major prizes for illustration, including the Kate Greenaway Medal (1980) and the Red House Children's Book Award (1981) for Mister Magnolia. He is also the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration and in 1990 was voted 'The Illustrator's Illustrator' by Observer Magazine. A tireless promoter of children's literature – and a long-time collaborator with roald Dahl –  Quentin Blake was awarded the OBE in 1988 and in 2005 he was awarded a CBE for services to Children's Literature. In the most recent New Year’s Honours list he has been knighted.

Quentin was the inaugural Children's Laureate (1999-2001), an experience he recorded in his book Laureate's Progress. During his time in the role, he celebrated children's books and children's book illustration with a range of projects and exhibitions, and conceived the idea for the House of Illustration, the world's first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms. 

Visit Quentin's website

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