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Around the World in Eighty Poems
A collection of poems and verse for children, covering places all over the globe and taking the form of a journey around the world. The poems are written by a variety of authors ranging from Rudyard Kipling to Benjamin Bolt.
128 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 1989
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 21, 2025
an anthology of poetry aimed at children and young adults, with the theme(s) of travel and the places, people, animals, etc one might encounter along the way.
divided into seven sections, the poems are grouped by theme:
1. Travelling
2. Fun and Fantasy
3. Song Dance and Play
4. Birds and Beasts
5. Food and Drink
6. People
7. Weather
tho these themes were far from discrete, and some poems could have found themselves in more than one category.
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
The Traveller, by Brian Lee, was a good opening poem - taking the reader around the globe. tho it was abit stereotypical in some of the descriptions... while I think chosen for the kinda complete tour, and for its rhyming too, this stereotyping and representation still has a potentially problematic impact.
in many ways, this opening poem kinda reflects the duality of the whole collection - it's fun in rhythm and rhyme, word play, energy, it's desire to travel and inspire... and it's semi regular tendency to cultural stereotyping.
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
the book very much has the feel of an anthology aimed at younger readers/listeners - there's alot of rhyme, humour, and a sense of adventure.
it was easy enough reading, and felt like something I might have appreciated more as a child. it also felt like it might be from a time when I was a child, wrt language/feel.
alot of the poems were set in, and/or from, the UK, mainland Europe, and North America... and mostly by English/North American poets (even when they were about other places). there were a handful from elsewhere, and/or in translation.
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
amongst the poems collected, most sections contained one or two I enjoyed:
Morrow, by Anon - going to Morrow tomorrow... lots of word play and rhyming 😁
At Kisagata, by Matsuo Basho 😊
The Picnic in Jamu, by Zulfakahn Ghoss ♥
Greek Fishcats, by Jane Whittle 😺
Fiesta Melons, by Sylvia Plath
Siberia, by Lucretia King (aged 11 years old).
Alabama, by Kaitaiihi Eagle Wing.
The Ice King, by A.B. DeMille
Greek Noon, by Christopher Mann
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
there was one poem in the collection that I think lacked important context, and I wasn't sure about its inclusion without that context - a song-like poem about what sounded like transport on a slave ship 🤔
(Limbo, by Edward Braithwaite). especially wrt how this might be received by young Black, Brown, African and African-American readers, whether in a classroom setting, or discovered in a library. one or two of the other poems contained what felt like cultural and/or racialised stereotypes too. so I don't think the book is especially appropriate for a contemporary audience, nor inclusive. published in 1989, it was perhaps already abit borderline in this respect.
🌟 🌟 🌟 2.5
accessed as an RNIB talking book, read by Richard Owens. he read mostly OK for a younger audience and for poetry, but I wasn't sure about his accents, especially eg African, and I did not at all enjoy his butchering of Welsh place names and words 😕😬
all names, places, poem titles, etc spelled by ear 👂
divided into seven sections, the poems are grouped by theme:
1. Travelling
2. Fun and Fantasy
3. Song Dance and Play
4. Birds and Beasts
5. Food and Drink
6. People
7. Weather
tho these themes were far from discrete, and some poems could have found themselves in more than one category.
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
The Traveller, by Brian Lee, was a good opening poem - taking the reader around the globe. tho it was abit stereotypical in some of the descriptions... while I think chosen for the kinda complete tour, and for its rhyming too, this stereotyping and representation still has a potentially problematic impact.
in many ways, this opening poem kinda reflects the duality of the whole collection - it's fun in rhythm and rhyme, word play, energy, it's desire to travel and inspire... and it's semi regular tendency to cultural stereotyping.
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
the book very much has the feel of an anthology aimed at younger readers/listeners - there's alot of rhyme, humour, and a sense of adventure.
it was easy enough reading, and felt like something I might have appreciated more as a child. it also felt like it might be from a time when I was a child, wrt language/feel.
alot of the poems were set in, and/or from, the UK, mainland Europe, and North America... and mostly by English/North American poets (even when they were about other places). there were a handful from elsewhere, and/or in translation.
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
amongst the poems collected, most sections contained one or two I enjoyed:
Morrow, by Anon - going to Morrow tomorrow... lots of word play and rhyming 😁
At Kisagata, by Matsuo Basho 😊
The Picnic in Jamu, by Zulfakahn Ghoss ♥
Greek Fishcats, by Jane Whittle 😺
Fiesta Melons, by Sylvia Plath
Siberia, by Lucretia King (aged 11 years old).
Alabama, by Kaitaiihi Eagle Wing.
The Ice King, by A.B. DeMille
Greek Noon, by Christopher Mann
🚂🌎🛥🌍🪂🌏🎈
there was one poem in the collection that I think lacked important context, and I wasn't sure about its inclusion without that context - a song-like poem about what sounded like transport on a slave ship 🤔
(Limbo, by Edward Braithwaite). especially wrt how this might be received by young Black, Brown, African and African-American readers, whether in a classroom setting, or discovered in a library. one or two of the other poems contained what felt like cultural and/or racialised stereotypes too. so I don't think the book is especially appropriate for a contemporary audience, nor inclusive. published in 1989, it was perhaps already abit borderline in this respect.
🌟 🌟 🌟 2.5
accessed as an RNIB talking book, read by Richard Owens. he read mostly OK for a younger audience and for poetry, but I wasn't sure about his accents, especially eg African, and I did not at all enjoy his butchering of Welsh place names and words 😕😬
all names, places, poem titles, etc spelled by ear 👂
Displaying 1 of 1 review