Wednesday 17 February 2016

I Can Read! Oxford Poetry For 6 Year Olds edited by John Foster



Book review: This is one part of a three part poetry series, the others being "for 5 year olds" (meant for children in Year 1 of school) and "for 7 year olds" (year 3, this book is for year 2), not that there is probably much difference, although I haven't got those ones yet so wouldn't know for sure.

Inside are 36 poems by my count, not 34 like in the blurb (at time of writing), nor the 33 mentioned in the acknowledgements or index of first lines sections. The poems are presented alongside colourful images with the book being full colour and every poem being accompanied by one or more illustrations. Note though that all poems have been published previously by Oxford University Press so if you have any of their other poetry collections going back to 1991 you may already have these. I haven't so all were new to me. They have been picked by John Foster, so it is no surprise that he is the most featured poet with six of his own "masterpieces" making the cut.

As well as the poems there is a notes section at the beginning telling you how the poems in the book can be used to help your child's education by telling you how to link it to the National Curriculum. This section is well worth reading prior to commencing reading as it has some useful exercises you can follow to aid your child's learning.

Also present at the end is a glossary of poetry terms. These include terms such as rhyme, rhythm, couplet and onomatopoeia.

I've been reading this with my daughter. We are defying the title because she is 5 but she has been doing well in reading a few of them. Also they are not too long she is able to cope with these easier than a normal story book, and the full colour pages and big illustrations also make it an appealing package for her. We will later make up our own poems. She has already been coming up with rhyming words to use. Good times ahead.

Publication date: 3 March 2016


Available on AMAZON UK (currently £6.99)