A Poem for Every Question

If your young readers love fact books but need more poetry in their lives, then this is the book for you. With quite an original premise, this book explores 100 different questions about the world and answers them in the form of brilliantly witty poems by poet extraordinaire Brian Bilston. Each poem is accompanied by illustrations by Joe Berger which bring the pages to life.

The questions featured cover a multitude of topics including history, geography, maths, science, sports, technology and more- there is something for everyone, whether they expect it or not. They range from the curious like ‘what causes a tornado?’ to more serious like ‘why should we recycle?’. But also include useful curriculum questions like ‘did dinosaurs have feathers?’ and more meaningful questions to promote discussions like ‘what is the difference between an emigrant and an immigrant’. Bear in mind there are also some seemingly silly questions to amuse those with more playful minds like ‘can poo heat your home?’ and ‘why do we fart?’.

The poems themselves cover a variety of styles and formats, including list poems, shape poems, poems that rhyme and concrete poems. It works well as a teaching tool but also to browse for leisure. Each poem has a section explaining the facts behind the poem which adds another dimension to the topic at hand.

Overall, a very enjoyable read with plenty of classroom and reading for pleasure uses that would be welcome in any primary school or children’s library.