by Jan Dean and Roger Stevens (Macmillan)

Two popular poets come together to create a delightful collection of poems about animals large and small, usual and strange. The craftsmanship is evident throughout – it feels as if every poem has been worked on carefully. The rhymes are clever and satisfying, the ideas are interesting and humour flows through the book, sometimes bringing a slight smile, sometimes worthy of a guffaw. There’s also some useful information in here, which means, along with the fun of reading the poems, children learn, too. A very good collection. TUC