Snollygoster and Other Poems

At last, a new children's collection from Helen Dunmore, including some wonderful poems from her first collection Secrets (now out of print). We step into the dreams of Pearlie Mountblossom who 'lost her mother/ she lives in a tent with her dad and her brother,/ the wind blew out and the sea blew in/ and Pearlie early learned to swim.' We meet Fudge the hamster in a poem packed with kennings, revealing the 'sawdust sleeper', 'night nibbler's' secret night life. There are poems about best friends, darkness, lorries, waiting for Mum - all beautifully crafted, the language and images (as is always the case in Dunmore's poetry) echoing in the mind long after the book is closed.