Cock Crow: Poems About Life In The Countryside

by Michael Morpurgo, Jane Feaver, Quentin Blake (Illustrator)

This anthology of poetry links together some of Michael Morpurgo's core beliefs for his tenure as Children's Laureate - the importance of reading for pleasure, with specific reference to a first-hand and powerful experience of the countryside and the natural world. He has chosen poems that display a link between a physical knowledge of the countryside and of nature e.g. 'Digging' by Seamus Heaney and 'The Thought Fox' by Ted Hughes. There are poems ancient and modern, from Virgil to John Clare, Andrew Marvell to Ted Hughes. And a wide selection of poems from nursery rhymes and anonymous poems to new writing from poets such as Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Longley and Alice Oswald. This is an anthology for all readers, which, without reducing itself to the lowest common denominator, could be enjoyed by everyone. Some poems could be read and enjoyed at a primary school level, and there will be others that can be grown into.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

These nice short poems about life in the countryside will suit kids with an ear for interesting sounds and an eye for the quirky line drawings.
Poems selected by Michael Morpurgo and Jane Feaver include work by Seamus Heaney and WB Yeats, Thomas Hardy and RL Stevenson, Shakespeare, Molly Holden, plenty of Anons. Some you will know and some you won't but none are very long and some are a few lines.
I think the poems are best read aloud. While a few are easy enough I think modern kids will be asking questions. What is a blacksmith, a whipper-in, a throstle, stubble-fire?
The cheeky drawings by Quentin Blake are good fun and serve to hold interest.

My copy is a nice little hardback gift book.
This is an unbiased review.

[Eva Wroe]

Book of the month gifted by my parents.