The Humpback's Wail

Chrissie Gittins’ lovely book of poems for children The Humpback’s Wail includes a variety of funny, thoughtful, playful and sensual, image-rich poems, probably most suitable for primary school-age children.

Some of my favourites were the history-inspired The Fragrant Pirate which explores the smells on board a pirate ship; Iris Upsidaisy, which describes Iris’ unruly hair and what it gets up to when she is awake and asleep, and the humorous and irreverent The Very Fortunate Frog – 'On hot days in July / when I’m feeling sleepy-snoozie / a hose pipe fills my fancy home / and turns it into a Jacuzzi'.

The author works frequently with primary schools to encourage a love of poetry in children, and this really comes over in her poetry, which is full of the quirks, strangeness and humour that children love.