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The Weirdest Thing of All by Michael Rosen ill. Ed Vere

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 26 Aug 2026

I hear the Town Crier a-ringing of his bell:
NEW POEMS! NEW POEMS! New poems from Michael!

It is indeed a special event. A 300pp hardback collection of new poems from Michael Rosen, illustrated by Ed Vere.

In this beautiful, funny, and moving collection of brand new poems, beloved writer and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen shares an unforgettable series of stories, experiences and memories of his own childhood.

Beautifully illustrated throughout by acclaimed artist Ed Vere, this is a book to treasure and share – a perfect introduction to poetry for readers of all ages.

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The Flying Machine of Dreams by Kate Wakeling ill. Viviane Schwarz

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 10 Aug 2026

Publisher: Otter-Barry Books
ISBN: 9781915659989

See also:
A Dinosaur At The Bus-Stop [ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Aug 2023]
Cloud Soup [shortlisted for the CLiPPA Award]
Moon Juice [CLiPPA winner]

Almost a decade after her first award-winning collection of poetry comes this glorious picture-book-sized set of new poems for the very young. Strongly recommended for nursery settings, Early Years and KS1, as well as, of course for parents. These are poems that children will enjoy reading for themselves once they have had them read aloud enough times so that they become half memorised. 

The title poem about a flying machine that “can squirt green slime” and has “a whole separate room/that is just for ice cream” is a good example of how good a feel Wakeling has the audience targeted by these new poems.

Who will win the Magnificent Race of the Animals? Frog on roller-skates or zebra on a scooter? Find a morning moon, six ways to look at a leaf, beautiful bubbles and amazing shapeshifters. Have a feast of words, make a den and then guess the names of the night animals…

Kate Wakeling’s wonderful talent for revealing the excitement that hides in everyday things, combined with her soaring imagination and special way with words, make this a poetry book that fizzes with ideas and inspiration for young children, perfectly matched by Viviane Schwarz’s exciting and inventive illustrations.

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CLiPPA 20026 Shortlist

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The shortlist for the CLiPPA Poetry Award 20026 was announced yesterday…

Five Little Friends: A Collection of Finger Rhymes by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Fiona Woodcock, Walker Books (3+) [ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Dec 2025]
With 35 brand new finger rhymes, this collection invites children to use not just their fingers, but their arms, and even their whole bodies to bring the verses to life. This will have everyone joining in, say the judges, who loved the memorable rhymes, the storytelling element and the way the book provides so many opportunities for contact and bonding.

A First Book of Bugs by Simon Mole, illustrated by Adam Ming, Walker Books (5+)
Simon Mole introduces young readers to a wide range of bugs through verse. We meet millipedes, ants, bombardier beetles and more and the verse is as varied, ranging from snappy haiku-style three liners and rhythmic text to blank verse. A brilliant book to share with children, say the judges, it explores biology through the milieu of poetry and will both spark their curiosity about the natural world and their desire to write.

The Poetry World of John Agard by John Agard, illustrated by Shirley Hottier, Otter-Barry Books (6+) [AN ACHUKA Book of the Year 2025]
John Agard selects 80 of his liveliest, funniest and most engaging poems in this masterful collection, which shows off his unique talent for observation and mischief, as well as the joy he finds in language. The warmth and playfulness is irresistible, say the judges, Agard’s voice is so distinctive and reading this is like getting a hug.

Press Start to Play by Sam Gayton, illustrated by Jack Noel, Andersen Press (8+)
This inventive debut collection cleverly bridges the gap between gaming and poetry, inviting readers to ‘press start on poetry’ and treat language as a kind of playground. It speaks directly to young gamers, using the style, rhythm, and energy of video games to spark an interest in words. Interactive, relatable and a gateway into word play, there’s lots to appeal here, say the judges, and the book dispels old notions of what poetry is.

This is Not a Small Voice: Poems by Black Poets edited by Traci N. Todd, illustrated by Jade Orlando, Nosy Crow (10+) [ACHUKA Book of the Day 28 Nov 2025]
Traci N. Todd brings together a range of predominantly African American, Caribbean, and Black British writing for children while an afterword puts the poems in their historical and cultural context and highlights the poems’ contributions to black pride, community, and resistance. Beautiful, say the judges, wonderful poems full of music, insight and originality, with strong design and handsome illustrations.

Nicola Davies is joined on the judging panel by 2025 CLiPPA winner, Colette Hiller; Reading Development and Children’s Book Consultant, Jake Hope; Lisa Mead, CEO of Apples and Snakes; and Anjali Patel, Lead Advisory Teacher, CLPE.

The winner of the award will be announced on 9 July at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds by Nancy Johnson James ill. Diana Ejaita

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 9 Dec 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

See also:
I’ll See You in Ijebu by Bunmi Emenanjo ill. Diana Ejaita [ACHUKA Book of the Day 19 Mar 2025]

“Beautifully crafted and compellingly celebratory.” KIRKUS
“In stunning saturated colorblock illustrations that foreground Wilds’s work and transformation, Ejaita plays with scale and proportion.” PublishersWeekly

This lyrical, gorgeously illustrated picture book biography celebrates this little-known poet and includes a biography that provides context to her life—the Great Migration, Jim Crow segregation—as well as a photograph and a small selection of her poems.

What dreams do you carry? Myra Viola Wilds dreamed of opportunity. She left her home in rural Kentucky for the city, learned to read and to write, and became a dressmaker. She hand-stitched gorgeous gowns. She worked so hard she lost her eyesight, and her world went dark. But those well-loved stitches turned into words, and one night Myra woke and wrote a poem she called “Sunshine.”

She kept writing. She wrote the lush green, sweet-corn yellow, cerulean blue, sunshine-y world from memory, collecting her poems into a book called Thoughts of Idle Hours, published in 1915.

You can follow the illustrator, Diana Ejaita, on . ACHUKA always lover her New Yorker cover art:

 

 
 
 
 
 
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This Is Not A Small Voice: Poems by Black Poets selected by Traci N. Todd ill. Jade Orlando

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 28 Nov 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

“This stellar combination of poetry and art draws readers into the wide experiences of being Black.” SLJ
“A stunning collection of poetry by Black poets, celebrating Blackness across the world.” BookTrust


A beautiful, bold and moving gift collection of 100 poems by Black poets for the whole family to treasure.

Discover classic favourites and new stars in a book that belongs on every child’s bookshelf. This gorgeously-illustrated children’s anthology makes the perfect introduction to poets such as Lucille Clifton, Langston Hughes, Benjamin Zephaniah, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Amanda Gorman, Caleb Femi and Joseph Coelho. It also features brand new work from celebrated writers such as Nikki Grimes and Carole Boston Weatherford.

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2025 CLiPPA Winner

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Colette Hiller has been awarded the 2025 CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) for Colossal Words for Kids – 75 Tremendous Words Neatly Defined to Stick in the Mind

On Friday 20th June 2025, the winner of the UK’s major award for published poetry for children, the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) was announced at a ceremony at the National Theatre on London’s Southbank watched live by thousands of primary school children.

In Colossal Words for Kids, Hiller defines in rhyme 75 ‘colossal’ words that children can use in their everyday lives, from capacious to voracious, procrastinate to zest.

A former actor and BBC producer, Hiller believes that children are natural wordsmiths, who love knowing and using big words and of her winning collection says, “My real aim is to spark a lasting joy of language. When we teach young children ambitious words, we show them that they are not intruders and that the English language is theirs for the taking.” 

Poet Roger McGough, chair of this year’s judges, said, “Colossal Words for Kids was a favourite with all the judges. It’s indisputably original and ambitious, with rhymes that demand to be spoken aloud. It’s also proof that learning big words needn’t be even faintly… soporific!”

Also shortlisted were a playful joint collection from John Agard and JonArno Lawson, pet poems by Brian Bilston, rhymes for the very young by previously shortlisted Jane Newberry, and a debut collection by Oliver Sykes describing his own childhood experiences.

Jonathan Douglas, Chief Executive of the National Literacy Trust, CLPE’s parent organisation, opened the event and said, “Children love poetry – reading, writing and performing it, as today’s CLiPPA ceremony demonstrates. We’re delighted to celebrate another outstanding shortlist and winner and to do so at the National Theatre and in the company of so many excited, enthusiastic young poetry fans. There’s no award quite like the CLiPPA!”

As well as spotlighting the best new poetry for children, the CLiPPA encourages schools to explore the shortlist with their pupils through its Shadowing Scheme and over 400 schools took part this year. Primary school children from Birmingham, Bradford, Croydon, Woodford Green and Bishop’s Stortford, winners in the CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme, also performed live at the ceremony on the Lyttleton Theatre stage alongside the poets. On the day of the ceremony, the performing schools enjoyed performance skills workshops delivered by the National Theatre to support them in their preparations to perform on the Lyttelton stage.

An audience of 800 watched the event live in the Lyttelton Theatre, while hundreds of schools across the country joined in watching the CLiPPA Award Ceremony via Livestream.

Colette Hiller receives a trophy and a cheque for £1000.

The CLiPPA is delivered in partnership with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and supported by Arts Council England. The Week Junior are media partner.

Wise Up! Wise Down! by John Agard & JonArno Lawson ill. Satoshi Kitamura

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 24 Apr 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

“John Agard tells us about the man with the hat; JonArno tells us about the hat. John Agard writes ‘Out of the Blue’, JonArno writes ‘Into the Blue’ and so it goes on. There are two other people who deserve credit for this brilliant collection. One is Satoshi Kitamura, Agard’s longtime illustrator partner who is here shared with John Arno. The other is whoever came up with the idea for this poetic partnership in the first place.” BfK 5-star review
“Though Agard’s love story of a cow and a cat prefaces Lawson’s tale of a romance between an octopus and a seahorse, the connections are seldom so direct; Agard refers to ‘Salt’ in one poem, for instance, and Lawson writes of ‘Peppercorn’. Similarly, Lawson’s cautionary tale of what happened when Humpty Dumpty took refuge under a chicken leads Agard to reflect on nature vs. nurture: ‘Was it a little gene / that caused Jack Sprat / to eat no fat / and his wife to eat no lean?’ Kitamura opens with caricatures of the two authors, then goes on to add generally tongue-in-cheek monochrome images of relevant animals, human figures with paper-white skin, decorative bits of abstract patterns, or informally drawn spot items. A page of suggested activities at the end invites readers intrigued by this interplay of poems, pictures, and ideas to create similar conversations with their own words or pictures. Stimulating exchanges, often veering off in unexpected directions.” KIRKUS
“[W]hen you open this book be prepared to embark on a foray into a lively, thought-provoking conversation between prize-winning poets. It’s so cleverly put together with the two voices taking turns throughout; they’re made to seem as if one person’s thoughts have immediately initiated a response from the other, despite many of the poems having been published previously.” Red Reading Hub

ACHUKA is a big fan of all three creators of this book and it beggars belief that it did not feature here when it was first published last year. Now it has been shortlisted for the 2025 CLiPPA award, and we are delighted to be given a reason to flag it up now as an ACHUKA Book of the Day.

How can laughter be more powerful than a sword? Why do days have names but not weeks? And do pigeons ever get a craving for cake? Two friends, internationally acclaimed poets John Agard and JonArno Lawson, take us on an inspiring, hilarious and wondrous journey through poetry, asking questions and attempting answers as they discover that life really is a forever and ever adventure.

Leave the Trees, Please by Benjamin Zephaniah ill. Melissa Castrillon

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Apr 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

“A visual feature to pore over.” BookTrust

Follow a little boy’s friendship and journey with one tree, in this powerful and beautiful love letter to nature.

Benjamin Zephaniah’s  story poemshowing how trees offer us the perspective and connection to nature we crave in our daily lives. The final scene is an honest representation of the devastating effects of deforestation and urban development, encouraging all of us, everywhere, to ‘leave the trees, please’.

 

Superb artwork by Melissa Castrillon, an English and Columbian illustrator. 
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Follow her Domestic course on Picturebook Illustration: Explore Color and Composition.

Sky Surfing: Excellent Adventures in a Poetry Balloon edited by Jonathan Humble ill. Chris Riddell et al.

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Jan 2025

Waterstones

“A triumph of range and depth, perceptively contrived to appeal to kids of all ages. From rollicking sleigh-rides of sound and rhythm whose unashamed mandate is to win over the youngest of readers, to the sensory slapstick of the immediate moment…” Yorkshire Times

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A Lot of Silly: A Book of Rhymes and Nonsense by Joy Cowley ill. David Barrow

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 5 Dec 2024

Waterstones
Bookshop

See also:
Good Night, Good Beach [ACHUKA Book of the Day 5 Jun 2024]
The Tiny Woman’s Coat [ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Sep 2021]

This book of rhymes and nonsense is an absolute delight!

Read this full biographical profile of one of New Zealand’s most prolific authors, now in her late eighties.

In this book full of absurd poems and very short, silly stories, a man takes his tadpoles for a walk in his hat, a cat is surprised by its talking feet, a tiger gobbles up a dentist, ten baggy clowns do a do-wacky dance . . . along with many more preposterous flights of imagination. Illustrations by David Barrow—a first-rate visual comedian—expand the humor in each fantastical suggestion. Cowley channels the spirit of classic, silly humorists such as Spike Milligan, Edward Lear, and Ogden Nash in this exuberant collection for the family that emboldens readers to experiment and play with language.

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