To be honest, we weren’t convinced poetry was up to the job of capturing the awe-inspiring weirdness of Love Island but the editors and poets of this anthology deserve a perma-supply of fake tan, hollywood smiles, and endless gym visits for somehow getting it absolutely right. 

Originally published by Hogarth Press in 1926 when the poet was 25, this collection of frankly strange, often beautiful, and sometimes downright spooky poems might just be exactly what you need to keep you on your poetic toes as the season changes and the evenings draw in.

Novelist Khaled Hosseini has surprised the literary establishment (as well as his millions of fans) and published what can only be described as a poem.  We have been amused by the customer reviews on Amazon ("more drawing than text and it is only 40 pages long" - welcome to the world of poetry!) but this incredibly moving book has a serious message as a father and son who have fled their home in the city of Homs wait for a boat to take them away from Syria. Inspired by the story of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Europe, this sparse, telling text (The skies spitting bombs. / Starvation. / Burials.) and the gently haunting watercolour illustrations of Dan Williams, make this the perfect book to share with children and discuss what it might be like to be a refugee.

We always have a an eye out for new rhyming stories to add to our Rug Rhymes repertoire and this one is perfect for our dogs and cats themed session. The bouncy rhyming couplets capture the energy of dogs and keep the poem moving jauntily along, engaging the younger listener. And the repetition and simple sentence structures help with language acquisition. Coupled with cheery illustrations (our favourite is the final image of the dogs in the fountain), this book is a lot of fun. We've road-tested it at Rug Rhymes and there was some collective barking.

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