The River's A Singer: Selected Poems

By Author / Illustrator

Valerie Bloom, Sophie Bass

Genre

Poetry

Age range(s)

Publisher

Macmillan Children's Books

ISBN

9781035043767

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

15-08-2024

Synopsis

The River's a Singer is a glorious collection of poems from the 2022 CLiPPA award winner, Valerie Bloom. Illustrated in gorgeous black and white art by Sophie Bass.

The very best of Valerie Bloom's poetry including 'Fruits', 'Autumn Gilt', 'Haircut Rap', 'Duppy Jamboree' and 'The River'. This selection brings many of her distinctive lyrical poems, which sparkle with joy and wit, together for the very first time.

Reviews

'The river's a singer, As he dances along, The countryside echoes The notes of his song.' A lively, joyous collection of poems, The River's a Singer offers a wonderful range of works, celebrating nature, family, cultural heritage and identity.

Many of the poems feature elements of Jamaican patois and, for those who need it, there is a very useful, detailed glossary at the end of the book with a few additional notes at the end of some poems. However, there is nothing quite like hearing Valerie Bloom perform her poems - an inspirational treat everyone should enjoy!

This collection contains a mix of new and previously published poetry, such as '‘Fruits' and 'Outdooring', using a wide range of styles and techniques. As well as being wonderful for performing, sharing or reading alone, many of the poems here would make wonderful models to explore and enjoy with a class. 'The River', for example, could be used as inspiration for a topic about rivers. Through using personification and metaphor, the personality of the river is explored, and this could lead to discussions about the vocabulary chosen to capture this, with children then offering their own suggestions and considering how these might alter the meaning / effect of the poem.

Word play - and history - are introduced in 'Henry the Eighth' and 'Watt Tyler' and there is a lovely collection of Christmas poems, offering a Caribbean flavour to the celebrations. 'Christmas is Here' gives a wonderful sense of building expectations and excitement and could easily be used as a model for children to create their own poems about Christmas - or other important occasions / events. Another poem which lends itself really well to encouraging children to create their own work is 'When Granny', which would also allow them to try to capture emotions through phrases and words. One of my favourite poems in this book is 'The Artist', but there are so many which could be commented on.

128 pages / Reviewed by Sue Wilsher, teacher