Take Off Your Brave: Poems Just for You

Poets are getting younger. Nadim, the author of Take Off Your Brave, is only four! Possibly, he has had some help from his mum and Kate Clanchy (a poetry teacher who has written the foreword to the book), at least in prompting, selecting and organising his words on the page, but in content and expression I think they might sound like Nadim, although, of course, we have never met. And, to be fair, he does have the copyright. If I were to say he sounded like a four-year-old that might be condescending and imply that all four-year-olds sound the same. They don’t, of course, although we can imagine they might have a similar outlook and shared concerns. Nadim sounds like a boy who is looking, thinking and feeling for himself, and that is certainly part of what a poet does. Some would say the most important part. For instance, he tells us what it feels like to be on a train. “Feels like bumpity bump/Sounds like chuka chuka shhhhh/Smells a bit like air and eating smells”. So it does. And did you know that “Underground/is where most of history comes from/ and buried treasure/ and the lost city of Atlantis”? Nadim is also quite a well-read (or read-to) poet and very curious. In another poem he asks “Does everyone know what the moon feels like? What do fire ants taste like? How many types of gadget are there?” Not all these poems are by Nadim. There is one from his nursery class and two from his younger(!) sister, Taleen. For this picture book, Yasmeen Ismail accompanies Nadim’s poems with illustrations that show that she, too, has been looking, thinking, and feeling just as well as Nadim. It all makes for a delightful, gentle and thought-provoking book that will fascinate children of about the same age and a little older; and hopefully will encourage other teachers and parents to discover the poet in their own children (and themselves).