The Hypnotiser by Michael Rosen

This is true to Michael's Rosens quirky  and sometimes side-splitting style.  His poems are created out of real situations which confront kids in every day life from the difficulty of eating a soggy pizza stuck in its paper bag on a train to a boy's beloved gold fish dying in its tank. There are many about the family and the funny little situations families are often confronting on a day to day basis. Many students will be able to identify with the themes in these poems. So, this poetry book joins two others by Rosen in our little classroom library. I promise the poems will brings smiles to your faces. Below is Rosen reading one of his poems from this book.

Down Behind The Dustbin

Michael Rosen's poems are actually funny and my last year's class just loved him, especially his video clips performing his own poetry which are available on line. This little book was one of his first. He writes about every day objects and circumstances, about things that would happen in a home... like the one about the mum waiting for her son to put his shoes on and he can't find them, or the one about what dad feeds the kids when the mum is away. I always was a big fan of his Down by the dustbin poems.

Down by the dustbin

I met a dog called Jim.

He didn't know me

And I didn't know him.

Check out the clip below of Rosen reciting some of his dustbin poetry.

Michael Rosen's a to Z: The Best Children's Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah

In this book famous British poet, Michael Rosen, is promoting contemporary poetry for children. I found this book at Shiploads whilst looking for Cathy Cassidy books. (Turns out all our girls had emptied the shelves of Cassidy weeks ago). It is an A to Z of British poets. Evidently these poems were carefully selected to show the varied ways that poetry can excite, entertain and intrigue. The poems are haunting, musical, compassionate with the world be looked at from many askew angles. Below is a fantastic link to Michael Rosen's website so you can read and listen to some of his poetry. Some of the videos are very funny and really worth watching. One of the funniest ones is London Airport. Fast Food is also pretty funny.

http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/hyp_london.html