Let's Celebrate : Festival Poems

by John Foster

Let's Celebrate is a collection of original poems about celebrations and traditions round the year and round the world, from Africa to Scandinavia, Bali to Scotland. Find out what's special about dragons in China, fishing in Nigeria, or trees in Australia, while notes to the poems explain about the various festivals. The poets include John Agard, Judith Nicholls, Wes Magee, and Jack Prelutsky; and in the illustrations, in colour and black and white, different artists give their own views of the celebrations. The book is especially useful for its comprehensive coverage of multi-cultural celebrations. It is now reissued with a new cover.

112 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 1990

About the author

John Foster taught English for twenty years before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of over 100 books for classroom use including the best-selling PSHE and Citizenship course Your Life. He is also a highly regarded children's poet, anthologist and poetry performer.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This A delightfully diverse anthology of verse celebrating festivals, some of them religious, others secular, the world over, We really liked the fact that as well as celebrations I was familiar with it also contained some such as Idh Mubarak (meaning Happy Idh) and Nyepi (The Day Of Yellow Rice) that were totally unfamiliar.

Packed full of glorious illustrations and handy footnotes should the festival need further explanation, I thought this a wonderful home and school friendly book, ideal given the multi-cultural/faith societies many of us now live in.

[Felicity Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whilst not exactly what you could call a fan of poetry, I always feel it should be read to me rather than read by my, I was never the less instantly attracted to this wonderful collection of poems compiled by John Foster.

A delightfully diverse anthology of verse celebrating festivals, some of them religious, others secular, the world over, I really liked the fact that as well as celebrations I was familiar with it also contained some such as Idh Mubarak (meaning Happy Idh) and Nyepi (The Day Of Yellow Rice) that were totally unfamiliar.

Particularly suitable for primary school readers and upwards. Packed full of glorious illustrations and handy footnotes should the festival need further explanation, I thought this a wonderful home and school friendly book, ideal given the multi-cultural/faith societies many of us now live in.

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper.

[Erin G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: poetry; grades: 3-5. I found these poems to be really interesting. I liked that they included festivals from many different cultures, and each new tradition had a small description below the poem. I also liked that they organized the poems by month. It made it easy to understand when these festivals take place. Very interesting poetry book!

[Mawgojzeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice poetry from many different poets and from around the world. Includes poems about events both religious (May Day) and not (Mother's Day).

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection has remarkably few good poems. Suitable only as a classroom resource, as it does cover a very wide range of cultures and religions.