Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
July 26, 2021/in Poetry 8-10 Junior/Middle /by Ellie
BfK Rating:
BfK 249 July 2021
Reviewer: Sue McGonigle
ISBN: 978-1529043013
Price: £5.99
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Genre: Poetry
Age Range: 8-10 Junior/Middle
Length: 96pp
Buy the Book

Olympic Poems: 100% Unofficial

Authors: Brian Moses, Roger StevensIllustrator: Nathan Reed

Olympic Poems is an engaging and varied anthology of sports themed poetry from two well established and highly skilled poets. There is something here for all readers, children and adults, whether they aspire to compete, prefer to spectate or are required to organise, whether they enjoy sport or definitely do not.

If you are looking for advice for staging your own Olympics and a recipe for what you need to be an Olympic athlete, you will find it here. There are poems about specific events such as hurdling, sprinting and running a marathon – ridiculing the trend for wearing outrageous costumes.

There is a nod to sporting history with poems about sports stars of the past such as Cassius Clay and Mark Spitz and to real events with Roger Bannister’s first four-minute mile, read this poem aloud and the rhythm of the poem echoes the pace of the race building excitement. Today’s children might enjoy reading about more contemporary sporting heroes too.

A range of poetry styles is included for example Haiku with Synchronisation, and Kennings with Athlete. Trampolining is a shape poem with the words bouncing across the page. A poetry marathon runs through the book, showing how the shape and pace of a poem can echo the changing phases of a marathon race.

The anthology includes plenty of humour, and there is lots to trigger the imagination – readers would have great fun thinking about more events in a Lazylympics for example. Word play abounds in poems such as Sporting Definitions (dressage – how long it takes to get ready!) There are changes of mood too with the more poignant A Sporting Chance about being left out and jealousy in I never learnt to dive like Dave. There are poems about boasting ‘I am the fastest’ and ‘Winning’ is a poem about being kind by letting someone else win.

It always rains on Sports Day will chime for many teachers used to the constantly rescheduling involved in planning this annual event!

First published in 2012 in the year of the London Olympics children and adults will enjoy this enjoyable, varied collection and it may well inspire young writers to have create their own sports themed poems using the highly accessible models as a starting point.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Olympic.jpg 499 330 Ellie http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Ellie2021-07-26 16:32:292021-07-26 16:32:29Olympic Poems: 100% Unofficial

Search for a specific review

Author Search

Search







Generic filters




Filter by Member Types


Book Author

Download BfK Issue BfK 255 July 2022
Skip to an Issue:

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

Sarah Hagger-Holt wins the 2022 Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction 2022

July 21, 2022

Maisie Chan and her editor Georgia Murray of Piccadilly Press win the 2022 Branford Boase Award

July 14, 2022

Valerie Bloom wins the CLiPPA 2022

July 8, 2022

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2022 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
The Way to Impossible Island The Astonishing Future of Alex Nobody
Scroll to top