The book took the best part of a year to put together. I began by thinking about the different performance techniques I wanted to share and then writing poems that would best highlight those techniques. For instance, I knew I wanted to write a poem that would be read quietly and get progressively louder. With that concept in mind, I started to think about subjects that would suit the performance and that’s how I came up with the notion of a poem about a radio being turned up when a favourite song plays. What are your top 3 tips to encourage children to enjoy reading and writing poetry? Keep your voice up towards the end of the line. There is no point starting a line strongly if you swallow the end of it, and you are more likely to swallow it if you assume that the audience already knows what you are about to say. The audience is not psychic. Messy Room’ is one of the best poems on this list. In it, Silverstein describes a very messy room and all the chaotic items it contains. The speaker exclaims over the state of a room. There is a wet raincoat on a cloth chair and underwear on a lamp. The next lines describe misplaced books and papers, more clothes, and even skis under the TV. The speaker begins with the line “Once there was an elephant”. The rest of the poem is a funny play on words. The “ele” in the word “elephant” is inserted into words like “telephone” and “trunk” confusing even the speaker at times. Here are the last lines:

Poems Aloud: An anthology of poems to read out loud by Joseph

Participating teachers to select students to represent their school from any of the three categories (Junior, Intermediate, Senior) Give them a notebook, a beautiful notebook and a fun pen. I love stationary and there is pleasure in using different coloured pens and pencils, I have used novelty pens that look like skeletons that box! Pens that vibrate, pens that are glittery, pens that light up and flash. The poem, written in the ballad metre (something it shares with a number of other poems on this list), was inspired by something that happened in the 1798 Battle of the Nile: Giocante, the young son of the commander Louis de Casabianca, remained at his post, unaware that his father was already dead, and … well, you can read the full sorry tale by following the link above. I have even talked the head into a little revamp of the library so that we can display them properly!Michael Rosen’s YouTube channel is a goldmine of performance poetry videos that are perfect to inspire children’s writing and reading of poetry. Whether or not you can manage Thomas’s lyrical Welsh burr when declaiming poetry, this is an ideal poem for reading aloud and this list to a nice conclusion.

Poems Aloud: Poems are for reading out loud! (Poetry to Poems Aloud: Poems are for reading out loud! (Poetry to

The poem begins with the speaker describing an illness that Christopher contracted and how his parents put him to bed. He was suffering from what sounds like a cold but his parents overreacted, imagining that it was something worse. They consult with a number of doctors who make the situation out to be even more complicated and nonsensical than it already is. Now We Are Six’is a funny, short poem. It is told from the perspective of a young child who takes the reader through the last years of their life. Poetry comes to life in that shared space between stalls and stage, there is something primal in hearing a voice lifting up to the heavens to share carefully curated words. Poetry Aloud is an annual poetry speaking competition open to all post-primary students on the island of Ireland. It is organised by Poetry Ireland and the National Library of Irelandin partnership with University College Cork. Since it was launched in 2006, Poetry Aloud has grown from just a few hundred entries to almost 2,000 entries in 2017.One of the lesser-known poems on this list, ‘Eletelephony’is an upbeat funny poem that describes an elephant through an outlandish series of events. A great deal of writing, I have some exciting projects coming up which I can’t wait to share across the age ranges with a new Luna book with Illustrator Fiona Lumbers, another Fairy Tales Gone Bad story with illustrator Freya Hartas and of course more poetry including another collection with illustrator Daniel Gray-Barnett called Smile Out Loud, filled with happy poems. I think it’s rare to have a day in a school where there isn’t a moment of joyous laughter- comes with the territory. I often run an exercise where I get the whole class to walk around the room reading their poems aloud all at the same time, as you can imagine the classroom becomes a cacophony of sound. I then shout “FREEZE” and then challenge them to continue reading but this time using a happy voice, they continue reading and now the sound is loud but very happy until I shout “FREEZE” again and suggest: an angry voice/a chilled voice/a robot voice/a witch’s voice!/ a silly voice. Each iteration often leads to students rolling on the floor laughing at their own voices and the strange sounds issuing from their classmates’ lips. Your book is beautifully illustrated by Daniel Gray-Barnett, how do the illustrations compliment your work? On the Ning Nang Nong’is one of the best examples of a funny, surprising, and confusing poem. The famous lines use nonsense language consistently to mimic sounds and create an entire world.