Inspiring children to read poetry aloud using the CLiPPA shortlisted books

First up is Big Red Dragon by Jane Newberry, illustrated by Carolina Rabei. This collection is an immersive introduction into poetry for young children. The rhymes are short, rhythmic and full of memorable repetition. 

They’re all action rhymes, providing children with ample opportunity for movement, dance and performance. Many of the poems involve living creatures and nature, making them perfect for enjoying outdoors.

Let Sleeping Cats Lie by Brian Bilston is a collection of humorous and engaging poems themed around a topic that many children will find relatable: pets. It’s a great example of the power of language and wordplay in poetry and will challenge children to think creatively about the way they use language and poetic devices and forms in their own writing. 

We are Family, Six Kids and a Super-dad, A Poetry Adventure, written by Oliver Sykes and illustrated by Ian Morris, is a heartfelt and honest ode to family. It explores the complex family dynamics that shape us, celebrating the juxtaposition of love, warmth, and humour with tensions, challenges, pain, and sacrifice. 

While the childhood experiences conveyed in the book are specific to the poet’s experience, the themes will resonate with young readers in varying ways. The poems provide children with opportunities for connection, reflection and empathy that will inspire their poetry reading, writing and performances. 

Each poem in Colette Hiller’s ambitious, rewarding collection Colossal Words for Kids explores the meaning of an intriguing word in an innovative format, accompanied by gloriously silly illustrations by Tor Freeman. 

Not only do these poems build young readers’ vocabulary, with Hiller’s use of rhyme rendering them super-memorable, but they also spotlight the playfulness of language and celebrate the power of a well-chosen word. 

Wise Up! Wise Down! is a joint project between John Agard and JonArno Lawson, wonderfully illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura. These two accomplished poets have a conversation in poetry, riffing on one another’s thoughts, going off at tangents and throwing in nonsense rhymes too! 

We’re sure the poems in this groundbreaking collection will tempt children to start their own poetry conversations.

We’re highlighting the best ways to introduce the CLiPPA shortlist to young readers and listeners.

Children need to hear poetry read aloud! Choose the shortlisted collection that is right for your class and read aloud a few poems each day, giving children a chance to savour the tunes, patterns, emotions and voice of each one. 

You can also give children an opportunity to hear the poems read aloud by the poets themselves: each of this year’s shortlisted poets have been filmed performing their poems and these are all available on the CLPE website. 

As children get to know the collection and become more experienced reading and exploring poetry, draw their attention to how poetry can be laid out, and how it’s different to narrative and informational writing. 

Poetry plays with the space on the page and revisiting the poems that children are most interested in provides opportunities to introduce children to specific forms or devices, looking at how poets have crafted and shaped lines and used words to evoke thoughts and feelings. 

If you want to get to know a poem really well, turn it into a performance. If poetry stays on the page as a printed object, it’s not going to come alive for children – but speaking it, learning it, and making it a performance, solo or group, will ensure it does. 

Giving voice and sound to poetry unlocks the meanings and music contained in each poem. It is through performing poetry that the power of language can be explored and realised. Speaking favourite poems aloud also leads children to reflect more thoughtfully on their meaning – and how that meaning has been shaped by the poet’s choices. 

Getting to know a poem inside out is a great way to spark children’s own creative writing, putting lots of ideas at their fingertips. Like many poets, children might be inspired to write a poem to encapsulate or express a particular idea, feeling, observation, memory or lived experience. 

Alternatively, as John Agard and JonArno Lawson suggest, they might be inspired to write a poem in response to a picture, painting or other external stimulus. As they look at the picture, they could write down words and phrases that come to mind, then put them together in ways that capture and communicate their initial response. 

Good luck if you decide to enter the CLiPPA Shadowing competition, and enjoy the poetry!