Good Night, Sleep Tight

A collection of 366 poems for bedtime reading, one, with a seasonal or topical flavour, for every night of the year. There are many contemporary writers, including children's voices, among the 168 poets from the UK, North America and other parts of the world represented. The likes of Auden and Agard, Carroll, Causley, Cope and Cowling, through Shakespeare, Stevenson, Tagore, Tolkien to Zephaniah with a sprinkling of anon. and 20 or so poems from the compilers provide a mix of the well-known and new work. Each month has a different artist including Peter Bailey, Harry Horse, Nick Ward and Ian Beck how decorate the top of each page with bedtime or seasonal friezes as well as small illustrations to many of the poems, all in full colour. Inevitably in a collection of this size there are a few poems I would not want to read aloud to a child and the emphasis - probably a reflection of the book's prime objective - is on the safe rather than the challenging. Nevertheless, a pleasing collection for the four to eights, not just for bedtime reading but also for anytime dipping, sampling, enjoying, savouring or revisiting.