I’ve been pondering poetry of late, particular poetry for children, inspired both by some study I’m doing and by the rediscovery of some of the poems of my childhood, including that of A. A. Milne, some of the earliest poetry I remember loving (along with Dr Seuss).
So I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is that makes a poem, the different forms used, and the ways that poetry is collected. The poetry I’ve been sampling is pretty varied – from Blake, to Ted Hughes, to AA Milne , to Michael Rosen and more. And, of course, because I’m a proud Aussie, I’ve been revisiting some of my favourite Australian poets. Which has reminded me that there aren’t a lot of children’s poetry books published in Australia, particularly single author collections. For now I’m not going to attempt to analyse why – that’s perhaps a whole series of blog posts. Instead, I thought I’d start with a list of the poetry collections published in recent years. Initially I looked for those published in t past 5 years, and asked friends on Twitter and Facebook to help. I ended up with a few titles that were more than five years, but in order to prevent the list being too depressingly short, I’ve kept those in.
So, here it is, my list of single-poet poetry collections for children published in recent years. I’m hoping I’ve missed some, and that this post will draw some comments from those who remember what I and my friends haven’t.
From Lorraine Marwood:
A Ute Picnic (Walker Books, 2010)
Note on the Door (Walker Books 2011)
Guinea Pig Town and Other Animal Poems (Walker Books, 2013)
Redback Mansion (Five Islands Press, 2002)
Elizabeth Honey
Mongrel Doggerel (Allen & Unwin, 1998)
The Moon in the Man (Allen & Unwin, 2002)
Honey Sandwich (Allen & Unwin, 1993)
I’m Still Awake Still (Allen & Unwin, 2008)
Steven Herrick
Untangling Spaghetti (UQP, 2008)
Doug McLeod
Sister Madge’s Book of Nuns (most recently Working Title Press, 2012)
Colin Thompson
There’s something really nasty on the bottom of my shoe (Hodder, 2003)
My Brother Drinks Out Of The Toilet (Hodder, 2000)
Meredith Costain
Doodledum Dancing (Penguin, 2006)
Anne Bell
Muster Me a Song (Triple D Books, 2002)
Christobel Mattingley
Nest Egg: A Clutch of Poems (Triple D Books, 2005)
Max Fatchen
Poetry Allsorts (Triple D Books, 2003)
Andrew Lansdown
Allsorts: Poetry Tricks and Treats (Wombat Books)
Rosemary Milne
There’s a Goat in My Coat (Allen & Unwin, 2010)
Duncan Ball
My Sister Has a Big Black Beard (Harper Collins, 2009)
Michelle A. Taylor
If the World Belonged to Dogs (UQP, 2007)
Janeen Brian
By Jingo! (ABC Books, 2005)
Geoffrey McSkimming
Ogre in a Toga (Scholastic, 2007)
John Hay-Mackenzie
Cautionary tales for boys and girls (Murdoch Books, 2009)
Jill McDougall
Anna the goanna: and other poems (Aboriginal Studies Press, 2008)
So, have I missed any? If you know of any single poet collections published in Australia in recent years, do drop me a line and I’ll add them. I haven’t included verse novels here, because I’m intending to compose a separate list of these, and perhaps also of anthologies.
