What do you think?
Rate this book
THE MAGIC BOX: POEMS FOR CHILDREN by Kit Wright
A beautiful collection featuring all of Kit Wright’s finest poems. It includes poems from his best-selling and universally loved collections, Hot Dog, Rabbiting On, Cat Among the Pigeons and Great Snakes and many other treasures too.
- GenresPoetry
Paperback
First published October 1, 2009
6 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Kit Wright
37 books6 followersKit Wright (born 17 June 1944 in Crockham Hill, Kent) is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and (jointly) the Heinemann Award. After a scholarship to Oxford University, he worked as a lecturer in Canada, then returned to England and a position in the Poetry Society. He is currently a full-time writer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 22, 2024
A Fabulous book of poems on a range of subjects. Although it is aimed at children, I think the poems give adults a lot of food for thought, as well as laughter. Witty and clever, these poems are always enjoyable to read.
October 17, 2013
Kit Wright’s demonstrates some of his most loved and best selling collection of poems in the book “The Magic Box”. Personally I am not a massive lover of poems but these poems by Kit Wright are both clever and witty, covering a wide range of familiar childhood settings and topics, such as poems about dreams, animals and football.
He includes some of his better known pieces e.g. Hot Dog, Great Snakes and Rabbiting On, all of which are fun, well written examples of poetry for young children to engage with.
My favourite poem was “The Magic Box” the book is named after. This is a imaginative abstract that describes a variety of beautiful, strange and wonderful things the narrator would put into their magic box. This would be a very effective at stimulating pupils’ imagination, and would be a good compliment to an English or Art lesson as you could get the children to describe what they would put in their magic box or get them to draw a picture of the magic box and all the wonderful things that were inside.
Other witty examples included: It’s Spring, It’s Spring and It’s Winter, It’s Winter, these poems are a bit different than what you expect and would be an excellent fun poem to present in class and get the children to figure out what has gone wrong.
The fate of the Supermarket Market Manager; I thought this was a fun description of an overly generous Shop Manager that ends up getting fired because of his good nature, it encompasses very good examples of rhyming prose for students learning the nature of poems. Following this you could get students to write a poem about their own quirky character in a similar style to this example.
This book has a vast collection of poems, in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles, rhyming and non-rhyming suitable for different age groups. The book would be an excellent addition to support the subjects across the National Curriculum, particularly to stimulate the children’s imagination and also boost literacy and children’s comprehension of abstract words and settings.
I thoroughly enjoyed Wrights clever collection of Children’s poems. Taking into account the level of support required for different age groups, I am sure that they would entertain and amuse 5-11 year old students and would be an excellent resource for teachers attempting to create interesting class lessons to get their pupil’s thinking.
He includes some of his better known pieces e.g. Hot Dog, Great Snakes and Rabbiting On, all of which are fun, well written examples of poetry for young children to engage with.
My favourite poem was “The Magic Box” the book is named after. This is a imaginative abstract that describes a variety of beautiful, strange and wonderful things the narrator would put into their magic box. This would be a very effective at stimulating pupils’ imagination, and would be a good compliment to an English or Art lesson as you could get the children to describe what they would put in their magic box or get them to draw a picture of the magic box and all the wonderful things that were inside.
Other witty examples included: It’s Spring, It’s Spring and It’s Winter, It’s Winter, these poems are a bit different than what you expect and would be an excellent fun poem to present in class and get the children to figure out what has gone wrong.
The fate of the Supermarket Market Manager; I thought this was a fun description of an overly generous Shop Manager that ends up getting fired because of his good nature, it encompasses very good examples of rhyming prose for students learning the nature of poems. Following this you could get students to write a poem about their own quirky character in a similar style to this example.
This book has a vast collection of poems, in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles, rhyming and non-rhyming suitable for different age groups. The book would be an excellent addition to support the subjects across the National Curriculum, particularly to stimulate the children’s imagination and also boost literacy and children’s comprehension of abstract words and settings.
I thoroughly enjoyed Wrights clever collection of Children’s poems. Taking into account the level of support required for different age groups, I am sure that they would entertain and amuse 5-11 year old students and would be an excellent resource for teachers attempting to create interesting class lessons to get their pupil’s thinking.
January 14, 2013
I have looked at three poems from Kit Wright to explore his style: 'The Sea in the Trees, Watch your French', Heads or Tails
The Poem “Sea in the Trees” describes an old man sitting in the shade of a large ash tree, dreaming of the sea. I enjoyed reading this poem because of its strong connection to nature making it very soothing and relaxing. There are some good uses of rhyme with ‘made’ and ‘shade’, and ‘tree’ and ‘sea’. The poem very cleverly links the tree to the sea, harbor and a ship through various literary devices such as imagery and personification. This poem is suitable for KS2, not so much KS1. Children could be asked try and identify any literary devices, they can perform the poem themselves or make their own poem based on the main theme from Wright’s poem. Rhyming words can be analyzed, words that may be unknown could be explored. Children can review the poem saying why they liked it or not. The meaning of the poem: what the poet is trying to do, can be explored.
Kit’s other poem ‘Watch Your French’ is very amusing and I am sure children would love it. The structure of the poem is clever starting with the narrator’s mother pouring fat on her foot and the using direct speech saying what she didn’t say in quite a sarcastic manner. Children could explore using speech marks in their poem and look at the position of the author and how that impacts the poem. Children could think of similar incidents and attempt to make their own poems with humor. This poem could be used for KS1 and early KS2 as the language is less complicated. The poem could be read as a whole class focusing on syllables or expression.
‘Heads or Tails’ may seem to be about a coin but it is actually about a strange dog taken home from the pound. The main idea is that nobody was clear which part of the dog is front and which is the back. Humor, of course, runs through the whole poem making it fun and amusing. Children should have no problems in understanding the poem as they can relate to it. A large range of work can be done from the poem similar to the idea above.
The Poem “Sea in the Trees” describes an old man sitting in the shade of a large ash tree, dreaming of the sea. I enjoyed reading this poem because of its strong connection to nature making it very soothing and relaxing. There are some good uses of rhyme with ‘made’ and ‘shade’, and ‘tree’ and ‘sea’. The poem very cleverly links the tree to the sea, harbor and a ship through various literary devices such as imagery and personification. This poem is suitable for KS2, not so much KS1. Children could be asked try and identify any literary devices, they can perform the poem themselves or make their own poem based on the main theme from Wright’s poem. Rhyming words can be analyzed, words that may be unknown could be explored. Children can review the poem saying why they liked it or not. The meaning of the poem: what the poet is trying to do, can be explored.
Kit’s other poem ‘Watch Your French’ is very amusing and I am sure children would love it. The structure of the poem is clever starting with the narrator’s mother pouring fat on her foot and the using direct speech saying what she didn’t say in quite a sarcastic manner. Children could explore using speech marks in their poem and look at the position of the author and how that impacts the poem. Children could think of similar incidents and attempt to make their own poems with humor. This poem could be used for KS1 and early KS2 as the language is less complicated. The poem could be read as a whole class focusing on syllables or expression.
‘Heads or Tails’ may seem to be about a coin but it is actually about a strange dog taken home from the pound. The main idea is that nobody was clear which part of the dog is front and which is the back. Humor, of course, runs through the whole poem making it fun and amusing. Children should have no problems in understanding the poem as they can relate to it. A large range of work can be done from the poem similar to the idea above.
December 23, 2012
Within this book I read the poem 'Magic Box' which is a powerful poem due to the imagery that he manages to create through the effective use of metaphors. It is based on a magic box to which Kit Wright envisions differing objects from different cultures (chinese dragon), climates (snowman)etc that are being put into it.There is a theme to this poem which is the magic box however that is all, all of the things that are put in the box are opposites in some cases which makes it different and interesting. The structure of this poem is that there is one repeating line 'I will put in my box' with two free verses towards the end. Therefore you can primarily go through this poem and discuss this structure and then the images that it creates using the five senses which can lead into a mind map activity.
I believe that this poem is made to be performed so this could lead into a group performing the poem by Kit Wright (making the lesson cross curricular)but then to work in groups to compose their own poem to perform and as each verse is individual (but the box) the children are able to pursue their own angle to this poem.
I believe that this poem is made to be performed so this could lead into a group performing the poem by Kit Wright (making the lesson cross curricular)but then to work in groups to compose their own poem to perform and as each verse is individual (but the box) the children are able to pursue their own angle to this poem.
April 2, 2013
My year 4 class explored the poem ‘The Magic Box’ in literacy. Having watched Kit Wright tell his poem "The Magic Box", we discussed its features, structure and content. We decided that the structure of this poem is that there is one repeating line 'I will put in my box' with two free verses towards the end.
The poem is made powerful due to the imagery created by the writer as he puts some wonderful, fantastical objects in his box. The children created a mind map of the wonderful and interesting things they would like to put in their own box. They were encouraged to think of the impossible as that is what makes the poem so fantastical. We explored how we can use powerful writing features such as alliteration, personification, similes and metaphors to create powerful imagery.
The children wrote some exceptionally beautiful poems with powerful imagery, it always shocks me how imaginative children are and the great work they can produce with a little bit of guidance.
The poem is made powerful due to the imagery created by the writer as he puts some wonderful, fantastical objects in his box. The children created a mind map of the wonderful and interesting things they would like to put in their own box. They were encouraged to think of the impossible as that is what makes the poem so fantastical. We explored how we can use powerful writing features such as alliteration, personification, similes and metaphors to create powerful imagery.
The children wrote some exceptionally beautiful poems with powerful imagery, it always shocks me how imaginative children are and the great work they can produce with a little bit of guidance.
May 2, 2013
I have read the poem ‘Magic Box’ it is a fantastic powerful poem full of imagery created by Kit Wright using metaphors. It is based upon a magic box, which is filled with various objects. There is only one theme in the poem, which is the magic box, all of the things, which are put in the box, are opposites, which makes it interesting and captivating. The poem has one repeating line “ I will put in my box....”. I have used with poem with year 4, writing an alternative poem using the key features whereby children used their imagination of what they would like to put in the box.
Currently reading
June 16, 2020OPGKQLRE
May 5, 2014
The Magic Box – Kit Wright
This extremely imaginative and though provoking poem by Kit Wright is truly remarkable. The imagery in this poem is incredible through its random nature. The box for me symbolises life, as the poet is putting things into the box that he likes, this would be useful in a literacy lesson where children can write their own poem. Images such as ‘‘the first smile of a baby’’ and ‘‘a leaping spark from an electric fish’’ are beautiful. There is also random and alternative images such as ‘‘a cowboy on a broomstick’’ which is extremely rare. This poem would be good to use in Key Stage 2 as children could really let their imaginations run wild.
This extremely imaginative and though provoking poem by Kit Wright is truly remarkable. The imagery in this poem is incredible through its random nature. The box for me symbolises life, as the poet is putting things into the box that he likes, this would be useful in a literacy lesson where children can write their own poem. Images such as ‘‘the first smile of a baby’’ and ‘‘a leaping spark from an electric fish’’ are beautiful. There is also random and alternative images such as ‘‘a cowboy on a broomstick’’ which is extremely rare. This poem would be good to use in Key Stage 2 as children could really let their imaginations run wild.
May 31, 2020
Fantastic collection of poems that can be used as stimulus for a variety of exciting cross-curricular activities. These poems really relate to and spark children's wonderful and sometimes wacky imaginations!
July 1, 2014
its an awesome book for kids and people who love reading poems just like me.......the more poems u read the more u ................grow!!!!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews