The Poet Who Makes Dinosaurs Roar and Bugs Buzz: An Interview with Simon Mole

Charlotte Hacking talks to rapper, spoken-word artist, picture-book author, and children’s poet, Simon Mole.

Simon Mole has always been fascinated by the spark of creativity in young people. Before he ever published a picture book or poetry collection, before A First Book of Dinosaurs or his brand-new A First Book of Bugs, he was the teenager running workshops for other youth groups at arts festivals, the rapper weaving words in bands as well as classrooms, the poet turning self-expression into a vital skill. ‘Being a writer or a rapper,’ he reflects, ‘means looking really carefully at the world, and looking again, and thinking how you might express what you think or feel about it. Those are amazing skills for young people to carry into life, whether they keep writing or not.’

The belief that creativity is both a personal joy and a social good has shaped Mole’s career. Long before books, he worked in schools as part of Creative Partnerships projects, turning multiplication tables into rap games – ‘learn tables with turntables’, and using hip-hop as part of PSHE projects. As a performance poet, he joined the acclaimed group Chill Pill alongside Raymond Antrobus and Deanna Rodger, as well as touring solo spoken word shows with Arts Council funding. In addition to his work with secondary aged pupils, he began to work with primary-aged children as part of a project with performance poetry organisation Apples and Snakes, which allowed him to build a more rounded instinct for how children think, talk, and create and how this could develop his own writing for children. ‘I was no longer running poetry workshops and then separately doing my own writing,’ he says. ‘It all started to connect. Ideas I shared with children were becoming part of my creative process.’

Mole’s first step into books came not through poetry but through picture books. ‘The poetry I wrote then was for performance,’ he explains. ‘If someone had seen me live, then I could imagine them enjoying reading my stuff afterwards, but I wasn’t sure printing out my spoken-word sets would best represent me as a writer on the page.’ A breakthrough came when Simon created Friends For All, a children’s theatre show for the V&A Museum, which later toured with Half Moon Theatre. Katie Cotton, then a picture-book editor at Frances Lincoln, came to one of the performances, sparking conversations that led to his debut picture book, Kites, being published in 2019. Under her guidance he learned to craft stories for the page, balancing the understanding of narrative structure and poetic language he had honed as a performer and spoken word poet, while learning how to leave space for illustrations to do their own storytelling.

Successful partnerships with illustrator Sam Usher followed in two picture books, I Love My Bike and I Love My Cat, both rich with rhythm and lyricism. Writing picture books, he says, ‘is somewhere between structuring a show and writing a poem to a form. You need the bones of a strong story, but you also get to play with sound, texture and sensory detail in a way that really keeps children engaged. I realised my writing could be fuller, richer and that kids love it when you have fun with language.’

When Walker Books approached Mole about writing a gift book about dinosaurs, he seized the challenge, and in doing so helped shape what the project would be. A First Book of Dinosaurs, illustrated by Matt Hunt, blended poetry and non-fiction in a way that introduced facts while celebrating imagination and language. Rather than trying to write encyclopaedic prose, he distilled his research into bold, vivid snapshots in a series of poems full of awe and wonder. A simple four-line poem about an Argentinosaurus can be full of character, energy, and scientific insight. ‘Poetry forces you to be selective,’ he explains. ‘It’s not about telling you everything. It’s about sparking curiosity.’

His new release, A First Book of Bugs, illustrated by Adam Ming, builds on that approach. Each poem zooms in on a different minibeast, from Woodlice to Goliath Tarantulas, while wider spreads share scientific facts and terminology, explain how bugs sustain life on Earth, keeping ecosystems alive, and explore how children might help protect them. ‘I wanted to get the balance right,’ Mole says. ‘First, make kids love bugs – they might be amazed, curious, delightfully disgusted – then you can give them a sense of what bugs do for the planet and how we can help.’

Behind the lightness of the poems lies rigor and fact. Both A First Book of Dinosaurs and A First Book of Bugs were fact-checked by scientists to ensure accuracy. In researching for the latter, Mole immersed himself in adult entomology texts, visited experts at London Zoo and Berkshire College of Agriculture, took his own kids on bug hunts and watched nature programmes on CBeebies alongside his young daughter to gain a sense, not just of what might be fascinating to her, but of which details she remembered afterwards. ‘I wanted the most up-to-date understanding, then to turn it into something playful and accessible,’ he explains. ‘If a poem says a caterpillar turns itself into a soupy goo before becoming a butterfly, which is true, then I hope kids go, ‘What?!’ and look it up to find out more.’

Although Mole rarely gives direct instructions to illustrators, his books’ layouts are strikingly bold and playful. ‘It’s about having a clear vision without telling someone what to draw,’ he explains. ‘Some spreads, like the patterned title pages, I’m not involved with at all; the editors, designers and illustrators handle that, but every element invites you to open the book and go, “Ooooh!” before you even reach a poem.’ The striking layouts of both the dinosaur and bug books, with bold title spreads and playful image-text juxtapositions, turn them into gift books: beautiful objects to treasure as well as engaging poetry collections.

Just as his books have roots in performance, his performances now grow from his books. Working with musician Gecko and director Peader Kirk, Mole has devised stage shows for both A First Book of Dinosaurs and A First Book of Bugs. These are not simple readings but interactive theatrical experiences: part gig, part creative writing session, part science lesson in disguise.

Whether performing to a class of thirty or a festival audience of four hundred, Mole keeps the emphasis on participation. ‘What we ask of an audience’s creativity builds throughout,’ he says. ‘Hopefully, they leave thinking, “I could be a songwriter, a poet, a scientist, a palaeontologist”. If they still love dinosaurs or bugs, that’s brilliant. But I also want them to feel they have the imagination to do something themselves.’

This philosophy has proved effective: The Great Big Dinosaur Show toured to over 4,500 people in its first year, reaching far beyond the usual poetry-loving crowd. Families come for the subject matter and leave inspired by the verse. The upcoming Great Big Bug Show will be performed at the Natural History Museum in November as well as at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The joy Mole takes in collaborating with others is mirrored by his openness to feedback from his core audience: children. He tested early drafts of bug poems in classrooms and assemblies, watching to see which lines grabbed attention, which rhythms stuck. ‘Sometimes I’ll even run a writing workshop with kids on a topic before I’ve finished my own poem,’ he admits. ‘If the activity is fun and creative, if it connects with them, then I know I’m on the right track.’

His favourite bug? ‘I love the bombardier beetle. Who doesn’t love a creature with a blaster on its bottom?’ he laughs. ‘But I think the dragonfly is amazing. It can fly in any direction, and it has even inspired human flight technology. That connection between nature and invention is exciting. In our live show, we even improvise songs about imaginary insect-inspired inventions like snail ‘climb slime’ so you can scale walls and worm rescue tunnels, just to show how bugs can spark creativity.’

Mole is conscious of the challenge of talking to children about climate change and biodiversity loss. He believes in honesty without alarmism. ‘It’s about attitude,’ he says. ‘You can inspire children to value nature without terrifying them. If they’re curious and engaged, they’ll take positive action. They’ll be bug lovers and bug protectors.’ That belief underpins both books. The poems never lecture, but they invite children to look closely at the natural world, to marvel at its complexity and fragility. By mixing lyrical language, humour and scientific truth, Mole turns environmental awareness into something joyful and empowering.

Mole’s next project is his first full poetry collection for older children (ages 7–11), Poetry Pizza, to be published by Otter-Barry Books in March 2026, with illustrations by Tom McLaughlin. Unlike the themed dinosaur and bug books, this will be a broader mix of poems, funny, moving and surprising, distilled from years of performing in schools and libraries.

‘It’s not a how-to-write-poetry book,’ he clarifies. ‘It’s just what I hope is a really great collection of poems; but I hope it also engages children and makes them feel like they could write too. Some poems are tightly structured, syllable-counted, rhymed; others deliberately resist finesse. I wanted that mix, so children see poetry as something they can play with — like a word game, a song lyric, a family joke. I’ve tested loads of them live, along with some of the first illustrations, and they’ve had a great reception.’

Across every stage of his career, rapper, spoken-word artist, picture-book author, and children’s poet, Simon Mole has woven performance, education and collaboration into a single practice. His books grow from the workshops he runs; his stage shows grow from his books; his research grows from conversations with scientists and children alike. ‘For me’, he says, ‘writing for children isn’t separate from working with them. The two things feed each other.’

Whether researching arthropods, performing to festival crowds, or signing books for children who’ve just learned what a bombardier beetle can do, Simon Mole’s aim is the same: to help children look at the world with curiosity, to trust their own creative voices, and to imagine futures where science and creativity work side by side.

With A First Book of Bugs, he proves that poetry can be factual, funny and visually dazzling, while helping children see themselves as writers, scientists, and inventors. As he launches The Great Big Bug Show and looks ahead to Poetry Pizza, Mole is showing that poetry for young readers can be as lively and surprising as the natural world itself. One thing is clear: he is less interested in pigeonholes than in possibilities. ‘I want kids to feel that they can be anything,’ he says, ‘a poet, a palaeontologist, a bug expert, or all of these at once’.

Charlotte Hacking is a teacher, Literacy Consultant and Educational Speaker. She co-authored the book The Balancing Act: An Evidence Based Approach to Teaching Phonics, Reading and Writing, which is currently shortlisted for the UKLA Academic Book Award 2025, alongside Professor Dominic Wyse.

Books mentioned:

A First Book of Dinosaurs Simon Mole, Matt Hunt, Walker Books, 9781529524352  £12.99 Pbk

A First Book of Bugs Simon Mole, Adam Ming, Walker Books, 9781529507546, £16.99 Hbk

Kites Simon Mole, Oamul Lu, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 9781786035578, £6.99 Pbk

I Love My Bike Simon Mole, Sam Usher, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 9780711256217 £8.99 Pbk

I Love My Cat: Simon Mole, Sam Usher, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 978-0711276512, £7.99 Pbk