Editorial 111: July 1998

This issue of BfK focuses on poetry – from a survey of the most recent publications for children and young people and a profile of a poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, whose poems constitute a powerful commentary on the world we live in, to A Child’s Garden of Verses in our ‘Classics in Short’ slot and a review from Margaret Meek of Morag Styles’s long awaited history of 300 years of children’s poetry, From the Garden to the Street.

But while interest in poetry appears to be booming (and Bloomsbury Children’s Books are launching a new poetry list) it is still the case that many adults find it hard to discuss poetry with children and encourage them to enjoy and write poetry themselves. Poetry enthusiasts, Gwynneth Bailey, John Lynch and Kevin Berry take three different aspects of using poetry with children and come up with some practical ways forward. On page 14 of this issue, your attention is also drawn to the first of a new BfK mini-series on ‘Useful Organisations’, in this case The Poetry Society and all it has to offer.

At BfK one of our most requested items is still ‘Four Steps to a Poetic Primary Classroom’, a series of check-lists on how to become a Poetry Enthusiast Teacher. It can be found in A Guide to Poetry 0-13*.