Walking the Bridge of Your Nose: Wordplay Poems Rhymes

by Michael Rosen, Chloe Cheese (Illustrator)

Lively full-color artwork complements a zany collection of wordplay in verse, including poetry, rhymes, riddles, tongue twisters, limericks, and more.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Nonfiction, Humor

61 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 1995

About the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walking the Bridge of Your Nose is a great collection of poems that really makes you think about the English language. Michael Rosen’s poems have lots of funny tongue twisters, puns, rhymes, nonsense words and great wordplay. One of my favourite poems from the book is about a bear and a boar “Once upon a barren moor, there dwelt a bear, also a boar; The bear could not bear the boar; The boar thought the bear a bore; At last the bear could bear no more, The bear that bored him on the moor; And so one morn the bear he bored, The bear will bore the bear no more.” There are also poems that have riddles and questions to get you thinking but the answers are at the back of the book if you get stuck. My year 3 class love reading this book and find the poems hilarious. I would recommend this book for all to read.

[Callie]

Fun book of word play and poems. Enjoyable to read it with my boys. Reminds me of reading this book in my childhood!

[Anyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poetry book begins with an introduction from the author explaining the collection he has brought together and some information about where poems, tongue twisters and funny rhymes originated. The introduction has a personal touch for the reader telling them to ‘prepare to be baffled, ‘bamfoozled’, bewitched and bedazzled’. It also encourages them to sit back and enjoy the poetry. The poetry book contains a contents page and an index of first lines and titles making it accessible for the children to use the book easily. In some of the poetry written, there are games for the children to play and some brainteasers for them to try. The answers are displayed at the back of the book with explanations.
Each page is highly decorated and illustrated, containing various coloured backgrounds and pictures.

The font and text type is effective and makes the particular poem more appealing and interesting to look at. One poem contains a few verses on the subject of something sliding away and those few lines are written on a tilt to remind the reader of the sliding process. Some poems are written over a double page with one page full of illustrations, which are bright and colourful to entice the reader.

[Natalie Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of wordplay poems, limericks, and riddles is excellently written and designed and perfect for children of all ages. The use of puns and word play make it so entertaining to children they don't necessarily realise that they're learning whilst reading or listening. It is particularly useful for teaching about homophones, rhyming,and nonsense poetry. I used it alongside a scheme of work focusing on nonsense poetry and found it really encouraged the classes enthusiasm for reading poetry alone and out loud to their peers. It really promotes thinking about the use of expression whilst reading. The title poem "walking on the bridge of your nose" for example, has cross curricular significance and provides an opportunity to discuss puns and humour, whilst also talking about various parts of the human body and anatomy. It contains colourful and interesting poem structures and images.
The book does have some downfalls in the respect that it uses quite adult and complex language functions which are difficult for children with English as an additional language to access.

[Robin Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Montezuma

Montezuma is a rhyming poem with an excellent list of vocabulary words. This poem tells a story using a long list of words ending with "ion". Words like preparation, ostentation, congregation to name a few. The illustrations portray Montezuma to be a warrior or hunter. I really like the way this poem ties the story together in humor.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorites are Esau Wood, the doggie and the sausages, and Ladles and Jellyspoons.

[Camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book of poems and silly ryhmes. I often go back to this book and read the funny sayings and quotes. A really good laugh!

[Mary Anjali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for the issues with English words, grammar and puntcuation.It is hilarious, I will definitely use the Potato pg and the inserting commas poem. (38+39)

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever collection of poems, rhymes, and wordplays with fun illustrations!

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny rhymes--I especially like the one for the alternate spelling of potato: Gheaughteighptough.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brightly colored illustrations were very eye appealing and the premise of the book appealing. Not sure why but for me, the book just didn't live up to its great first impression.

[Susan Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent children's book on word play.