Scratch 'n' Sniff
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from The Hutchinson Treasury of Children’s Poetry (cover illustration by Peter Weevers). Edited by Alison Sage (who also edited The Hutchinson Treasury of Children’s Literature), this sumptuous anthology is loosely divided into four sections corresponding to age starting with nursery rhymes and first poems through to poems for older children and classic poetry. Poems from such modern poets as Roger McGough, Ted Hughes, Wendy Cope and Maya Angelou sit alongside poems by Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shelley and Shakespeare. The anthology is illustrated in full colour and black and white. Newly commissioned illustrations from, for example, Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes and Nicola Bayley are included alongside illustrations by Randolph Caldecott, Jessie Willcox Smith and Kate Greenaway. With such a comprehensive range of poems for 2-11 year olds and upwards, this is a wonderful family book.
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Scratch 'n' Sniff
Though the title risks suggesting otherwise, this is firmly not just another dog and cat story. I rarely come across an early story book that has me chuckling out loud on a first reading - and finding the same response with six- and seven-year-olds. In short, Scratch the cat wants his mates round to play. The only way he can get Sniff the dog out of the house is to put very, very strong doggy drops in Sniff's drinking bowl and send him off in search of the weird and wonderful aromas. Sniff's encounters with fellow canines Scruff, Sebastian, Fifi and a wonderfully irreverent Spike ('I like a bit of leg now and again') make for great shared reading. Page lay-out, illustration and text will ensure this fast becomes a favourite for the literacy hour!
