High Tide: (Children’s Poetry Library)

High Tide is a collection of the best of my poems for children written since 2002. This is a book of very accessible, crafted poetry for children of seven years old and upwards, with a balance of rhyming poems and non-rhyming poems, amusing poems and serious poems. It ranges from pieces about animals and nature to poems about space, school, and family. It includes some nonsense and riddles, and two long story poems.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Space Black hole The Maker said Beginnings Snow My coloured pens Our short but interesting Greek bus journey Hunting in February Mr Frog, Deer’s skull Shadows Frost ‘Please do not feed the animals ...’ Starting School – Preston, 1912 ‘Scary doesn’t have an e, James.’ English Rules – ’Don’t use “and” all the time’ Slovenly student, 1345 Recent history lesson Peace process Ping Feng Frogs Cat sisters Table Sorry, mouse Things with feathers Swallows in September ‘Gift offer – Traditional Wishing Well – £47.50’ Shopping at Christmas The Tale of Sir Toby the Timid Humpty, the true story Shiny cheery poem High tide Seaside September Useful phrases for when you’re on holiday ... Autumn Flood Gnome at the Garden Centre Evening song

About the Author :
Robert Hull's High Tide (Salt, 2010) is his third collection of poems for children. It follows Stargrazer (Hodder, 1997), which was short-listed for the Signal Poetry Prize in 1998, and Everest and Chips, (Oxford University Press, 2002), short-listed for the CLPE prize. His fifty or so titles for children include collections of myths and folk-tales, one of which, West African Stories (Wayland) was short-listed for the 1999 Kurt Maschler Award, as well as anthologies of poetry and three books for teachers: The Language Gap (Methuen, 1985), Behind the Poem (Routledge, 1988), described in Books for Keeps as 'one of the best books about children, teaching and writing to appear for a long time', and the recent Poetry - from Reading to Writing - A Classroom Guide for 7-11 year olds (Routledge, 2009). He regularly visits schools to run writing workshops, and is a regular contributor to educational magazines.

Review :
The best newcomer is Robert Hull whose collection Stargrazer (Hodder and Stoughton) is wonderfully various, both in theme and form. It dips and delves into Roman history, Provencal legend, describes how shadows seem under bridges, retells, with a humorous lightness, Galileo’s story. This is a poetry book to make children feel and think simultaneously. Hull never patronises children by pretending to be one himself – he’s too mindful of their uniqueness to behave so improperly