Poetry Box has invited school, town and National Library librarians to read some of their favourite poems for children for the Poetry Box Listening Corner. I love people reading poems to me, especially poems for children. You can hear the music, the word play, and you can feel the pictures grow in your head as you listen. What a treat!
School libraries and school librarians are important. They help share and nurture a love of books of all genres, which are such important tools for young readers and writers, storytellers and fact hunters, researchers and poem lovers, for growing into who we are as adults.
The Librarian
Cathy is at Monteriggioni, a gorgeous hilltop village in Tuscany
Cathy Mahoney is the teacher librarian at St Francis Catholic School in Point Chevalier. She introduces herself and her library on the audio. If you check out the photos below you will see what an inviting space her library is, and what wonderful activities the children do. You could try writing a spine poem! She has selected two poems to read, one from my book Macaroni Moon, and one by Joy Cowley from Elephant Rhymes. Cathy got a little help from students reading Joy’s poem.
I love the Italian photo because it reminds me that libraries, books and poetry are a form of travel. Books and poems are full of windows, doorways, light, steps and stairs, and discovery.
Have fun listening! Try making a poem playlist of your own! Keep an eye out for my hidden challenges over the coming months – I will be posting poems by children and giving books away.
The Readings
Cathy introduces herself and her library and reads ‘Where the Mild Things Are’ by Paula Green, illustrated by Sarah Laing. From Macaroni Moon (Random House, 2009)
See if you can figure out all the titles I have hidden in the poem! (Paula)
Cathy reads ‘The Bookshop Elephant’ by Joy Cowley. She is helped by Alice, Emily, Emilia and Florence. From Elephant Rhymes by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Brent Putze (Scholastic, 1997)
There was a cat called Moggy Who used to swim in the sea. It made her whiskers soggy But it got her fish for tea.
Joy Cowley
(from Pawprints in the Butter, Mallinson Rendel, 1991)
Alyssa G, Year 4, 9 yrs, Maraetai Beach School. Loves to read everything and anything and usually has at least three books on the go. At the moment she’s reading: Little tales of hedgehog and goat (independently), Charlotte’s Web (with Mum) and Bad Dad (with Dad). Bookcase is full of Weir Do, Donovan Bixley, Baby-sitters little sister, David Walliams, Roald Dahl, pick-a-path books and still has a huge collection of picture books she loves to reminisce over.Alyssa loves to write her own stories and has journals full of these. They often feature talking animals. Alyssa plays the piano, loves gymnastics and enjoys playing with her dog, Jaxon.
Joy Cowley is a prolific, widely-published and much-celebrated writer of fiction for adults and children. Joy began her career writing short stories and novels before moving into the realm of children’s literature. She has published numerous novels, as well as short stories that have featured in journals, anthologies and book-length collections. She has written a remarkable range of children’s books and stories, often illustrated by renowned artists. Joy was made a Distinguished Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit for services to children’s literature in 2005, and she was awarded a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement for Fiction in 2010. In 2018, Joy was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. Gecko Press published The Gobbledegook Book which contains Joy’s poems. (Read NZ)
The Tiny Woman’s Coat, Joy Cowley and Giselle Clarkson, Gecko Press, 2021
Sometimes all you need is a book that is as good as a bowl of comfort soup. A book that fills you up with warm glows so that even the gloomiest day brightens.
I was feeling really glum, the sky outside was dismal grey, I had a head full of little worries that together grew together like a snowball.
So I picked up Joy Cowley’s The Tiny Woman’s Coat with illustrations by Giselle Clarkson. A perfect choice. The story is sublime. The illustrations are sublime. Double dose of sublime.
I read the book in one sweet gulp and truly the sky lightened, the birds started singing, and the icy snowball in my head melted away.
This beautiful book is comfort at its very best. The tiny woman, shivering and shaking, needs a coat, but she doesn’t have anything to make a tiny coat with! So she heads out wondering where she will find what she needs. Yes! The tiny woman plans to make a coat, not buy a coat. I love that! She will need cloth and scissors, a needle and thread, and buttons. Everyone she meets (a grey goose and a friendly horse for a start) has the perfect gift for her.
The illustrations are exquisite: the colour palette perfect, and the lines deliver life and animated character with a lightness of touch.
Three words resonate as I read: simplicity, lightness and KINDNESS. Three perfect words to carry on days of gloom and grey.
Thank you Joy, Giselle and Gecko Press for this gift of a book. I am going to savour the story and the illustrations again today.
EXTRA for keen young readers and writers: For my October poem challenge I have invited children to use the first lines of books to kickstart a poem. I did three sample poems. I used the first sentence of Joy and Giselle’s book for one example. I actually wrote the poem before I read the book – so my poem is completely different. It was such fun to do. Give it go!
Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s best-loved writers. Her awards include the Margaret Mahy Medal; the NZ Post Children’s Book Award 2006; the Roberta Long Medal, Alabama, USA; and the AW Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature. She is a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Giselle Clarkson is an illustrator from Wellington, New Zealand. She once drew a picture of some biscuits that was shared online so many times that they put her on TV. As well as illustrating children’s books, Giselle is a regular contributor to the NZ School Journal. She writes a comic about children’s books for The Sapling, and makes educational comics about important and exciting environmental topics. She loves to have adventures at sea and on remote islands best of all. Giselle has a degree in photography from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.
National Poetry Day is on Friday August 27th. To celebrate I invited 8 of my favourite children’s authors to read a poem they love. I have put some poetry challenges under each reading for you to try. I am fairly sure National Poetry Day events will be reinvented online so I am sharing this poetry festival now.
Perfect for National Poetry Day but even more perfect for lockdown. Writing and reading poems is my happy place! Have a go!
I am currently in a state of drift and daze so do let me know if I have made mistakes – I am always grateful not offended.
🌻 A big bouquet of warm thanks and salty west-coast air and mānuka scent and blue skies to the eight authors who did such glorious mahi out of poetry love and the poets who gave permission. Thank you!
Listen to the authors read a poem
Try some of my poem challenges
Deadline:10th September
Send to: paulajoygreen@gmail.com
Include: name, age, year, name of school or homeschooled
Don’t forget to put National Poetry Day Poemin subject line so I don’t miss it
I will post some favourite poems on 17th September. I will have loads of books to give away! I will read all the poems and email you back by this date.
IF YOU MAKE a video – I need parental permission to post it if I pick it.
TOP TIP: Leave your poem for a day and then read it out loud. Listen again before you send it to me.
Happy National Poetry Day!
Keep safe, be kind, share the joy in poetry.
The Poets reading Poems
Vasanti Unka
Vasanti Unka reads ‘When the Lid Slides back’ by Bill Manhire
Poem challenges
Choose a favourite object and write a poem about it.
Pick five favourite words in Bill’s poem and use them in a poem of your own.
Bill loved using his coloured pencils. What do you love doing? Write a poem, long or short, about a favourite thing to do. You might start with an object or you might collect verbs to get you started.
You could turn any of these ideas into a picture/shape/concrete poem. You could make an audio or video of yourself reading your poem or even making your poem!! (need parental permission to send me)
Poem source: Bill Manhire is one of my favourite NZ poets and I especially love this poem. I picked it for A Treasury of NZ Poetry for Children (Penguin Random House). It is in Bill’s collection The Victims of Lightning (Victoria University Press).
Vasanti Unka is a picture book creator who writes, illustrates and designs books for ages, 4 – 108 year olds. Over the years, her work has won a range of awards. Her latest book, I Am the Universe won the Booksellers best kids book for 2021. She was born in Pukekohe and presently works out of her sunroom in Auckland. Vasanti’s blogspot. Penguin author page
Bill Manhire’smost recent poetry book Wow (VUP) was longlisted for the NZ Book Awards 2020. He was New Zealand’s inaugural poet laureate, and founded and for many years taught at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. Many New Zealand poets have been through this highly acclaimed writing propgramme. In 2005 he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in in the same year was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate. He has edited major poetry anthologies. You can listen to some of his poems here.
Gareth Ward
Gareth Ward reads ‘The Door’ by Daniel Stokes (written aged 10)
Poetry Challenges
Choose a portal, maybe a door or window, and build a poem around it. Your poem might be IMAGINARY or REALISTIC.
You could do a list poem. A window is … OR A door is … OR A gate is …
Or you could write a poem that uses a portal to tell a story. Think of the scene, the mood, fascinating things that might be on the other side.
Poem source: Toitoi 21. This is a wonderful journal of writing and artwork by children. You can find details about it here.
Gareth Ward, a.k.a. The Great Wardini, is a magician, hypnotist, storyteller, bookseller and author. He has worked as a Royal Marine Commando, Police Officer, Evil Magician and Zombie. He basically likes jobs where you get to wear really cool hats. He currently resides in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand where he runs two independent bookshops, Wardini Books and Wardini Books Napier with his wife Louise. He has a goldfish called Luna, a dog called Tonks and is certain his letter from Hogwarts has been lost in the post.
His first novel, The Traitor and the Thief, a rip-roaring young adult Steampunk adventure, won the 2016 Storylines Tessa Duder Award, the 2018 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Youth Novel, a 2018 Storylines Notable Book Award and was a finalist in two categories at The New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. His second novel, The Clockill and the Thief was released in August 2019 and won a Sir Julius Vogel award for best youth novel. Brasswitch and Bot is Gareth’s third novel and the first in the Rise of the Remarkables series. It is set in the city of York, where Gareth went to University.
My name is Daniel, I was born in Hamilton and still live here. I am 11 years old, turning 12 in December. I live with my sister (Abby), my mum (Kate) and my dad (David). My many hobbies include Irish dancing, reading, and trumpet, which have all become very important to me. I am working towards Grade 5 for practical trumpet and music theory. I have also developed an interest in waterpolo earlier this year. I am very passionate about that and look forward to the next season.
The first writing I enjoyed was poetry, which my many teachers at my old school, Hukanui School, made me do all the time. That then brought me into the world of writing. In the last few years I went from disliking writing quite strongly to enjoying it very much. The problem that I had always had with writing was not the actual ideas and content, it was the physical writing and having a link between what I was thinking (which goes 100 miles an hour) to what I was writing (which was much, much slower). Poetry allowed me to think less about grammatical structure and the amount of words and more about how I could bend words to my advantage, by investigating how groups of words sound together to paint a picture.
Philippa Werry
Phillipa Werryreads ‘If you feel blue get on your skidoo’ by Margaret Mahy
Poetry Challenges courtesy of Phillipa:
Write a poem about another mode of transport that plays on its name, as Margaret does with skidoo. You could pick submarine, double-decker bus, helicopter, train, bicycle, balloon, snowboard, lorry … or something other fascinating means of travelling.
Write a list poem that starts If you feel ….. (some emotion). You could feel happy, sad, scared, lonely lost, cross, shy, bored … you pick!
Write a poem with some made-up words in it.
Your poem might tell a story or just have fun with WORDS!
Let your imagine go flying!
Poem source: This fabulous poem is in Margaret’s fabulous poetry collection The Word Witch, edited by Tessa Duder, illustrations by David Elliot (HarperCollins)
Philippa Werry writes fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry for children and young adults. She has a particular interest in history which has led to titles such as Anzac Day, Best Mates (illustrated by Bob Kerr), Waitangi Day, The New Zealand Wars, The Telegram and This is Where I Stand (illustrated by Kieran Rynhart). She has also been to Antarctica!
Margaret Mahy (1936 – 2012) is one of New Zealand’s most beloved authors. She wrote over two hundred titles from dazzling picture books for the very young to award-winning novels for teenagers. She wrote poems, novels, non-fiction, picture books and countless school readers. Margaret was awarded the Hans Christian Anderson Medal which is an enormous, international honour.
Donovan Bixley
Donovan Bixley reads ‘The Circus’ by Joy Cowley
Poetry Challenges
Donovan says he loves funny poems and poems with an AH HA! moment in the middle. I do too!
Try writing a poem that is funny. It might be a funny character, a funny event, a funny place, funny food, funny jokes.
Write a poem about something funny that has happened to you.
Write a poem that has a surprise or a twist in the middle or at the end.
Poem source:Elephant Rhymes, Joy Cowley, illustrated by Brent Putzee (Scholastic) I am such a fan of Joy’s poems. Check our her Gobbledegook book (see her bio).
Donovan Bixley is one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed picture book creators with over 120 books published in 31 countries. His award-winning titles span high–brow to low–brow and every brow in between, from his illustrated biography Much Ado About Shakespeare, to the hilarious hijinks of pussycats in planes in Paris in his Flying Furballs series. He’s most well-known for his best-selling pre-school books such as The Wheels on the Bus and The Great Kiwi ABC Book, as well as his colourful and humorous retellings of of the legends of Māui. Among his many accolades Donovan was the recipient of the 2017 Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Laureate Award, which places Donovan’s body of work alongside some of New Zealand’s most celebrated artists. His books have been twice selected for the International Youth Library’s White Raven award which annually lists the top 200 children’s books in the world, and in 2021 he was named a Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for his services to New Zealand children’s literature.Donovan grew up in Taupō and still lives beside the great lake. When not immersed in the world of picture books Donovan is involved in local theatre and plays saxophone in several bands.
Joy Cowley is one of New Zealand’s best-loved writers. Her awards include the Margaret Mahy Medal; the NZ Post Children’s Book Award 2006; the Roberta Long Medal, Alabama, USA; and the AW Reed Award for Contribution to New Zealand Literature. She is a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Gecko Pres published the utterly magnificent gathering of Joy’s poems, with illustrations by Giselle Clarkson in The Gobbledegook Book: A Joy Cowley Anthology.
Melinda Szymanik
Melinda Szymanik reads ‘Sun Sonata’ by Elizabeth Pulford and ‘Waxing and Waning’ by Elena de Roo.
Poetry Challenges
Try writing a very small poem about the sun OR the moon that shows them in a new light.
Collect sun OR moon words and make poem patterns with them. Have word fun!
Write a very small poem with both the SUN and MOON in. Test out favourite lines and pick your favourites.
Poem sources: Elizabeth Pulford’s ‘Sun Sonata and Elena de Roo’s poems are both in A Treasury of NZ Poems for Children, edited by Paula Green (Penguin Random House).
Melinda Szymanik is an award-winning writer of stories and poetry for children and young adults. She was the 2014 University of Otago, College of Education, Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence, a judge for the 2016 NZCYA Book Awards and runs an online writing competition called Fabostory, for primary and intermediate age children with 9 other authors. Her most recent books are Moon and Sun (Upstart, 2021), My Elephant is Blue (Penguin, 2021) and Batkiwi (Scholastic, 2021).
Elena de Roo is a children’s poet and author who lives next to Cornwall Park in Auckland. As well as having a sweet tooth, she loves thinking up poems in her head while walking around the park. Her latest book, Rush! Rush! (illus. Jenny Cooper) One Tree House, is a story-poem inspired by a walk in Awhitu regional park. Elena also has several poems soon to appear in Roar, Squeak, Purr: A NZ Treasury of Animal Poems, (ed. Paula Green, illus. Jenny Cooper), Penguin Random House, due out in November. www.elenaderoo.com
Elizabeth Pulford lives in a small village not far from the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with one extra nice husband, and a gentle garden. She has two adult children and two grandchildren. She has published stories, poems and articles for both adults and children. Over sixty books for children, from early readers through to Young Adults; plus one adult’s novel. Many of her adult short stories have won competitions, while four of her children’s books, The Memory Tree (Scholastic NZ), Call of the Cruins (Scholastic NZ), Tussock (Walker Books Australia) and Finding Monkey Moon (Walker Books Australia & Candlewick USA) reached the finals of the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards.
Tania Roxborogh
Tania Roxborogh reads ‘My Sister’s Top’ by RuthSun (Year 7)
Poetry Challenge
Think of an everyday object that you can describe in a poem, and that says something about who you are and your place in the world.
Use someone’s favourite piece of clothing to write a poem about them.
Choose your own favourite piece of clothing and see where that takes you in a poem. You might get a story, a word pattern, a picture poem, a list poem.
Poem source: Ruth wrote this poem when she did writing workshops with Tania over six weeks in 2006.
Tania Roxborogh (Ngāti Porou) is a veteran educator and an award-winning writer of over thirty published works. Her latest children’s novel, Charlie Tangaroa and the creature from the sea, published by Huia Publishers September 2020, won the Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction and Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, 2021. Tania’s happy places are: her classroom, at home with her husband and her young border collie, enjoying pyjama days, and wherever she can snatch time to read – most often books recommended by her students.
From Ruth Sun: I was a massive reader all through my teenage years, at the time I really liked fantasy and always wanted to be the next Tamora Pierce or Terry Pratchett. I was at Columba College in Dunedin. I used to read and write constantly, although I didn’t actually like poetry much at the time.
Unfortunately I don’t really do any writing anymore, although it’s something I always think about getting back into. Funnily enough I love reading poetry now, I still love Tamora Pierce and Terry Pratchett as well. I’m now a dentist based in Wellington/Porirua. I have a big collection of books but they’re all in storage at the moment. I’m sure mum still has that top somewhere!
Elena de Roo
Elena de Roo reads ‘Parcel’ by Bill Nagelkerke
Poetry Challenges
Think of a place you love and unwrap it in a poem! It might be your grandparents’ place, or aunt or uncle’s, or in another town or city, in the countryside, another country.
Hunt for detail that will make the place glow in your poem.
Poetry Source:The Night the Moon Fell Down and other poems, Bill Nagelkerke (Copy Press) – some terrific poems in this collection! PG
Elena de Roo is a children’s poet and author who lives next to Cornwall Park in Auckland. As well as having a sweet tooth, she loves thinking up poems in her head while walking around the park. Her latest book, Rush! Rush! (illus. Jenny Cooper) One Tree House, is a story-poem inspired by a walk in Awhitu regional park. Elena also has several poems soon to appear in Roar, Squeak, Purr: A NZ Treasury of Animal Poems, (ed. Paula Green, illus. Jenny Cooper), Penguin Random House, due out in November. www.elenaderoo.com
A former children’s librarian, Bill Nagelkerke has written short stories, poems, plays and books for all ages, as well as translating other people’s books from Dutch into English. His most recent titles are a collection of poems, The night the moon fell down (dist. The Copy Press, 2019) and a ghost story, The ghosts on the hill (Cuba Press, 2020). His translation of the children’s novel I’ll keep you close (Levine Querido, 2021) by Dutch writer Jeska Verstegen will be published towards the end of the year.
Bill Nagelkerke
Bill Nagelkerke reads ‘No rhyme’ by Tim Upperton
Poetry Challenge
Tim Upperton’s poem offers lots of challenges for poets! Try writing a poem where you use your imagination and see the world in surprising ways.
Look out the window and rewrite what you see in a poem, letting your imagination soar.
Poem source: ‘No rhyme’ was published in the School Journal Level 3 August 2015
A former children’s librarian, Bill Nagelkerke has written short stories, poems, plays and books for all ages, as well as translating other people’s books from Dutch into English. His most recent titles are a collection of poems, The night the moon fell down (dist. The Copy Press, 2019) and a ghost story, The ghosts on the hill (Cuba Press, 2020). His translation of the children’s novel I’ll keep you close (Levine Querido, 2021) by Dutch writer Jeska Verstegen will be published towards the end of the year.
Tim Upperton is a poet, writer, reviewer and teacher, living in Palmerston North. He is the winner of two international poetry competitions. He has been published in numerous literary journals and has published several poetry collections.
To celebrate the arrival ofJoy Cowley’s magnificent new book of poems and storiespublished by Gecko Press (with zany illustrations by Giselle Clarkson), I invited a few people to join me in writing letters to Joy – two children, a parent and an author.
For a long time I have wanted to see your poetry for children back in print – so how delightful to see the gorgeous new edition of your stories and poems published by Gecko Press. Your poems fill me with happiness – they are playful and have such an elastic imagination and fine ear at work children adore them.
I have always loved your commitment to writing for children – not just in the glorious stories and poems you write but in your engagement with children. I am thinking of the letters you write them, the way you pay attention to their dreams and experiences, the support you give the fabulous Storylines and the ongoing support you give writers.
To be a writer is a very private thing but it is also a public thing – and you have shown how to inhabit the world with generosity, kindness and empathy. This matters.
Like so many other people, I have had a long history of reading your work, by myself and with my daughters, and it has enriched our lives with wisdom, humour and humaneness.
To celebrate the arrival of your wonderful new book I have invited a few others to write to you too – some children, a parent and an author.
Ngā mihi
Paula Green
Dear Joy,
Your poems are incredible, fascinating and full of fun! Every word on the page jumps like a tiger and soars like an eagle! I used to read your poems when I was younger, they helped me through a tough time. When I felt the weight of the world, your poems lifted me back up. I’m so grateful that there are amazing people like you creating stories and poems that brighten people’s days. I hope, aspire, and dream to be able to make poems like yours one day.
Thank you
from Gabbie, age 12, Newlands intermediate
Dear Joy
I am writing to you with a big thank you for the amazing stories you have created for every kind of reader.
In a teaching setting, I use your stories no matter what age group I am working with. I love starting the youngest ones on a path to a love of reading with the wonderful characters in the Mrs. Wishy Washy books. My older, often struggling, readers always draw affinity with dear Greedy Cat (who is not so secretly my favourite of your characters). And I can sit back and enjoy reading aloud the likes of Dunger and Speed of Light to my Year 7/8 groups. Indeed, if a Joy Cowley book comes out in any class, everyone smiles.
At home, our bookshelves are lined with your work, as my children will always share that you are their favourite author. The reason? Because of your style, your imagination, but most of all because you have always been there. They have grown up with, and through, your stories. You have inspired their own writing, and presented opportunities for them to explore and develop that. Each child has a copy of Just One More right beside their bed, ready for those times when they just want to wind down with a familiar favourite.
And for me personally, when I read about you, I am filled with admiration. Your amazing life of flying planes, motorbike riding, woodturning and more is so inspiring… so many adventures to be had! Amongst all that, you have given us all adventures of our own, through your writing. You accept challenges for what they are, and get on with the doing. And somehow, you have always had time for everyone, replying to fan mail, participating in local events, and helping young writers on their way.
You are a truly astonishing person, and I am so grateful for all you do. I can’t wait to read “Silence” once it is published. The kids are not the only ones who seek out Joy Cowley books!
Warm regards
Robyn Lovewell, Wellington
Dear Joy
I am writing to say how much I appreciate you and your wonderful stories!
I honestly don’t know which is my favorite, there are so many. Snake and Lizard? The Wild West Gang? Hero of The Hill? Bow Down Shadrach? But the book that lives by my bed is Just One More, which I still read all the time…with dragons in libraries and horses on escalators and then of course Jack and his hole that follows him around – that one makes me laugh even when I tell other people the story.
There is a good reason why you are so famous and probably NZ’s favourite author. Your junior books always have funny bits in them. Your older kids fiction books always have something to make you think. And you have such a variety of books, long stories, short readers, poems, little kid books, grown up books. There is something for everyone in what you have written. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t like a Joy Cowley book.
I hope that more stories can jump out of your head so there will be even more Joy Cowley books to fill up the C shelf at the library.
Thank you for being such an awesome writer.
From
Daniel L, Year 6, Adventure School, Wellington
Dear Joy
When Beth and I dropped in to see you a few years back, you gave us an excellent lunch; spilled a bit on yourself and said “Oh, Great!”; showed us the glowing wood work you were doing in your workshop, talked about kindness and spirituality, mentioned mutual friends with affection, and asked after MY writing.
I thought this was so typical of you – generous, wry, adventurous and versatile, sincere, always aware of others. Many people will talk about your writing, which I admire just this side idolatry, but I wanted to mention you. You are a joy to know. Every time I meet you, I go away feeling affirmed and loved. Live for ever!!
Joy Cowley with illustrations by Giselle Clarkson, Gecko Press
see below for two pop-up Joy Cowley challenges! I have some surprise giveaways!
Gecko Press has published the most gorgeous anthology of Joy Cowley’s favourite stories, poems and nonsense rhymes. Everything about this book is perfect. The size. The feel of the paper. The way the words dance on the page. The way the stories and poems dance in your mind. The way words are so deliciously playful. And the way Giselle Clarkson’s heavenly illustrations are poems on the page.
This is a book to treasure.
This is a book to read when the rain slaps the windows so you feel warm inside.
This is a book to read when you feel a bit flat and dreary and need a book to set you soaring.
This is a book to snuggle up with and read to your mum or dad, or your son or daughter, or your best friend. Even a cat would start purring. Even the howling wind would listen.
‘The Tiny Woman’s Coat’is the first poem in the book and is about a tiny woman who needs a coat and needs help to get it.
Joy sets her imagination dancing like the autumn leaves and brings in a porcupine and a horse and hey presto! A happy ending. You will have to read it to find out how these things fit into the story but here is the first verse:
The tiny woman wanted a coat.
“Where will I get the cloth?”
“Try some of our leaves,”
said the autumn leaves.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
Enter this anthology and you will find intriguing cats and a storm of ducks, jellybeans and tractors, a cheese trap and elephants. Oh and even an old singlet!
You will definitely grin from ear to ear.
The poems move and squawk and whoosh!
You will find old favourites such as ‘Nicketty- Nacketty, Noo-Noo-Noo’ and ‘Greedy Cat’.
Like Margaret Mahy, Joy is the Queen of Having Fun with WORDS, especially made up words. I love ‘Goggly Gookers’.
Grandma has her own names for things – spectacles are goggly gookers, gardens are fizz-bustles, cabbages are grimlings, cows are clops and pickles are bundajins. See what you make of the last verse! I adore it.
“Grandma, Grandma,
put on your googly gookers.
The clop is in the fizz-bustle
eating all the grimlings.
If you don’t get her out
you’ll be in a bundajin.
And that’s a fact.”
Joy is also the Queen of WHAT IF POEMS. Like what if you drop your jellybeans – what a ROLLICKING WHOOSH of story-book imagination in ‘Do Not Drop Your Jellybeans’ – follow what happens when the jellybeans get dropped and you end up (after all kinds of catastrophes and calamities) on an iceberg! Wow!
I love the writing so much because Joy is our poetry trapeze artist: her words swing and soar with such agility on the line. I love how every line flows so sweetly with rhyme and invented words; the words that fit together like music. And all the delicious music goes hand in hand with storytelling that is equally delicious. The combination makes you feel so GOOD. Here is the start to ‘Super Jumble’:
There was trouble in the jungle
wen a buffalo tried to swingle
like a monkey from a bundle of vines.
He got into a tangle
and was left there to dangle
at a very awkward angle, in the lines.
The Goobledegook Book is the perfect book to read up a mountain or by a river, in the tent when you go camping or in the kitchen as the soup simmers, or in bed before you nod off to sleep and dream of cats and more cats and acrobatic words.
If you love this book tell me what your favourite poem or story in it is and why you like it in a few sentences and I will post some answers.
I would also love to post some fan mail for Joy Cowley. Write a letter to Joy saying what you love about her books – a bit about you – anything! I will post some and then she can get to read them.
I will have some giveaway surprises for some lucky young poetry fans!
Deadline: Friday October 25th
Send to: paulajoygreen@gmail.com
Include your name, age year and name of school (or say home schooled)
Don’t forget to write Joy Cowley challengein the subject line so I don’t miss your email.
Song of the River by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Kimberley Andrews
Gecko Press, July 2019
Joy Cowley’s delightful story Song of the Riverwas originally published 25 years ago but Gecko Press have published a new edition with gorgeous artwork by Kimberley Andrews.
Reading Joy’s story filled me with a warm hum that I carried with me all day.
Cam lives in the mountains and he tells his grandfather he wishes he could see the sea. One day a trickle of water – running through the trees and the snow – calls out to the boy:
‘Come with me. Come with me. I will take you to the sea.’
Joy writes like a poet as she tells her story; the words ripple and chatter over the stones of its telling. I am carried along by the voice of the water. I am enchanted by the sound as the water moves down the mountain. First it sounds like snow, then like a creek, then like a waterfall, and then like leaping trout. On and on it goes with Cam running along, the view changing, the river sounds changing, and always there is the pull of the sea.
Cam might wonder what the sea looks like but what will it sound like? You will find out!
This a story about a boy wanting to see the sea. It is about imagining. It is about beginnings and endings. It is about paying attention with ears and eyes. And it is absolute treat to read – you might fill with a warm hum too.
Reading the book made me want to write a poem!
Kimberley’s illustrations fill the landscapes with life and mood. She is a trained biologist who grew up in the Canadian Rockies and now lives in a shipping container tiny house in Wellington. In 2018 she illustrated Explore Aotearoa (shortlisted for NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults). She also wrote and illustrated Puffin the Architect published last year.
Joy Cowley is one of our most beloved children’s authors. She has won many awards and honours including the Prime Minister’s Award for Contribution to Literature (Fiction). In 2018 she was shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
I talked with Megan by cell last night. Megan accurately confirmed the plot and characters, and the misunderstandings between the parents and children that led to their actions to protect Shadrach. Megan’s highlight was the foal that was born afterwards! Megan now writes and performs indie music and teaches young emerging musicians at Naenae College. Still the writing about kiwi stories goes on!
Kia ora Diane, That is such a lovely letter. Thank you. Shadrach was inspired by Blossom, an elderly Clydesdale who lived at the head of Kenepuru Sound. Being severely arthritic, Blossom chose to stand on the road rather than her cold paddock, and our children had to push her off so that we could drive on. Old horses have a habit of farting as they walk, so there was usually an argument as to who would do the pushing. When Blossom died in her paddock, the kindly road man brought in his digger to bury her, and we all said goodbye to a fine draught horse. But it wasn’t really goodbye, because then she became Shadrach,
I am 67, and my daughter who is 33. We both love your book, Bow Down Shadrach.
When Megan was young, I had a job where I had to travel away from home, and visit teachers in schools. I visited bookshops in Nelson, Blenheim and Wellington. We read each new book together when I returned.
We liked this story best because it was about children being kind to an old horse. We loved it because it was set in the Marlborough Sounds where my father, Megan’s Grand Dad Jock, lived as a boy. You lived there too.
Thank you for writing real kiwi stories for kiwi kids. You can’t do better than that!
Poetry Box 