Poets in Hand

The Puffin Quartet of Poets (Eleanor Farjeon, James Reeves, E V Rieu and Ian Serraillier) brought together under Eleanor Graham's editorship has been a staple Puffin title for many years. It is now joined by Anne Harvey's five poets (Charles Causley, John Fuller, Elizabeth Jennings, Vernon Scannell and John Walsh) and like its companion should find a welcome in many classrooms and libraries. It is a skilful selection; poems for children which demonstrate the importance of words, the liberating discipline of form and rhythm. Five distinctive voices offering to readers and listeners (as Elizabeth Jennings says about writing poetry) 'another way of finding out about what life and the world means'. Anne Harvey's anecdotal introductions to each poet are informative and interesting.