Synopses & Reviews
Here are poems celebrating 24 fantastic festivals from around the world, by poets from across the globe...Eid, Diwali, Hannukah, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, Pancake Day, the Cherry Blossom Festival - and lots more!
Find poems about your favourite festivities or go for more unusual celebrations. Look out for the Ice Festival with its massive ice sculptures, or tree-saving Arbor Day, and go wild at Tomatina, the wonderful tomato-throwing spectacle.
Edited by well-known anthologists Debjani Chatterjee and Brian D'Arcy and glowing illustrations by talented new illustrator Shirin Adl, this is an exciting journey of discovery that brings each festival vividly to life. Let's Celebrate!
Review
"For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
Ralph Waldo Emerson"
and#151; from the book
Synopsis
This exciting anthology of poems celebrates festivals all over the world. From Chinese New Year to Carnival, from Thanksgiving to Holi, and from Purnima to Diwali. with explanations of the festivals at the back of the book, and with colourful and atmospheric illustrations by Shirin Adl.
About the Author
Debjani Chatterjee and
Brian D'Arcy have contributed to many anthologies of children's poetry; they both have teaching backgrounds and are now full-time writers. D'Arcy won an Edward Lear Centenary Limerick Competition and Chatterjee's
Rainbow World: Poems from Many Cultures was an EMMA Best Book of the Year finalist. Debjani has written several collections of traditional tales and she often visits schools and children's libraries as a poet and storyteller. She lives in Sheffield.
Shirin Adl was born in Harlow, Essex, and grew up in Iran. Back in England, she studied Illustration at Loughborough University, going on to win the Hallmark MandS Talented Designer Award. Since leaving college Adl has worked as a freelance illustrator. Her clients include, Woodmansterne Publications, Channel Four News, Imperial Cancer Research, Marks and Spencer and many online magazines and websites. Her books for Frances Lincoln include Pea Boy and Ramadan Moon. She lives in Oxford.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
The Chinese Dragon by Catherine Benson
The Pancake by Christina Rossetti
Tossing Pancakes by Nick Toczek
Ice Festival by Brian Dand#8217;Arcy
Carnival by Valerie Bloom
Three Loud Cheers for Esther by Debjani Chatterjee and Brian Dand#8217;Arcy
Saint Patrickand#8217;s Day by Brian Dand#8217;Arcy
A Card for me Mom by Bashabi Fraser
Colours of Holi by Debjani Chatterjee
Baisakhi by Anonymous
Cherry Blossom Haiku by Uejima Onitsura and Kobayashi Issa
Easter Lily by June Masters Bacher
Grandmaand#8217;s Easter Eggs by Wes Magee
Dance, Dance by Anonymous
Poe-Tree for Arbor Day by Sue Hardy-Dawson
On Buddha Purnima by Bashabi Fraser
Ode to Tomatoes (extracts) by Pablo Neruda
Harvest by Joan Poulson
Harvest Festival by Simon Fletcher
Eid Mubarak! Eid Congratulations by Kazi Nazrul Islam
Moon Cakes for Trung Thu by Mandy Coe
Hallowe-en by Jill Townsend
Diwali by Debjani Chatterjee
Hannukah by Andrea Shavick
Thanksgiving by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Pilgrims Came by Anonymous
Christmas Bells (extract) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Christmas Pudding by Anonymous
Kwanzaa by Anonymous
About the Festivals