Books in Poetry series

Christmas brings out the best and worst in us, as can be seen in this evocative anthology. Among what Thomas Love Peacock calls the 'many poetical charms in the heraldings of Christmas' there are eulogies by saints and diatribes from curmudgeons. Here, Christmas is expounded by divines, sung by rustics, deplored by philosophers, made mystical in stories...and summed up in a line by the poet Elizabeth Jenkins: 'The hush, the star, the baby, people being kind again'.

One of the the UK's top performance poets explores issues of race and identity with a mixture of new poems and old favourites for teenagers. 'Half-Caste' is one of the poems on the AQA GCSE English syllabus and thus studied by every student following this major syllabus. As a consequence it and its author are among the best-known in secondary schools. John Agard is also very active touring England with GCSE POETRY LIVE, day-long events of poetry discussion and performance reaching some 80,000 students each year. HALF-CASTE AND OTHER POEMS is aimed directly at the audience for GCSE POETRY LIVE. Built around this seminal poem, it is a mixture of old and new poems that address core issues and experiences for young people. Race and cultural identity is a primary theme and shapes the book. But although he includes poems such as 'Checking Out Me History' about the way the black perspective on history has been ignored, John is just as interested in celebrating the richness of human diversity in poems full of wit, compassion and hope. There are poems about violence, the environment, relationships, politics and grief, alongside

This is Chris White at his very best—a mad journey through the past ten years of Chris’ favorite poems, such as "Bitey The Veggie Vampire" and "Never Put Curry Up Your Nose." Whatever Chris writes, his unique sense of humor seems to hit the funny bone every time. Children of all nationalities and cultures seem to have one thing in common—they all like to laugh! Chris White is the king of the belly laugh—you have been warned!