Poems Aloud

Joseph Coelho’s latest collection, aimed at junior school children, is all about poems to perform. While his introduction says that you can equally well perform them alone, they nevertheless emphasise the rhythm and rhyme and dramatic characterisation likely to catch and hold an audience’s attention. There’s a challenge, too, to the reader/performer in rising to the demands of a poem’s language, theme and intent. The collection kicks off with tongue twisters and ends with a poem that intends to make a significant statement about climate change. You are challenged to make your audience laugh and cry; to feel; and to think. You must be an actor, a storyteller and an advocate. Coelho provides poems that encourage you to do all of this and which incidentally might give you hints and tips on how to start writing and performing your own poems. The collection is presented in a colourful picturebook format with lively cartoons by Daniel Gray-Barnett; a format that emphasises Coelho’s ‘biggest rule of all’ – ‘that poetry is fun and ultimately there are no rules!’