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Children's reading lists

The best poetry books for children

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Extracts

Windrush 75: an extract from Verbal Riddim

Covers of Little Badman, Funky Chickens, Kiki's Delivery Service and Tall Story

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Social Impact

The (incomplete) Lit in Colour book list: Years 5-6

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21 books featuring Black heroes and characters every child should read

Funky Turkeys

Brought to you by Puffin. 
 
Enter the crazy world of rap poet Benjamin Zephaniah! 
 
Funky Turkeys is the first audio edition of Benjamin Zephaniah's poetry collection for children - playful, clever and provocative - this is performance poetry on the page at its very best. 
 
An unconventional collection of straight-talking poems about heroes, revolutions, racism, love and animal rights, among other subjects, that will entice many new readers to poetry. 
Poems in this audiobook were first published in Funky Chickens and Talking Turkeys.

Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham and then spent some of his early years in Jamaica. He came to London when he was 22 and his first book of poetry for adults was published soon after. He appears regularly on radio and TV including a Desert Island Discs appearance, literary festivals, and has also taken part in plays and films. He is most well-known for his performance poetry with a political edge for both children and adults and gritty teenage fiction. His collections Talking Turkey, Wicked World and Funky Chickens broke new ground in children's poetry. He is the only Rastafarian poet to be short-listed for the Chairs of Poetry for both Oxford and Cambridge University and has been listed in The Times' list of 50 greatest postwar writers. Benjamin now lives in East London.

Funky Chickens

Enter the crazy world of rap poet Benjamin Zephaniah! 
A reissue of the wonderfully irreverent collection of poetry for young people, touching on anything from vegetables to the Queen and from sewage to the sun. There's plenty of humour as well as poems on racism, pollution and the murder of a cat.

Zephaniah is the reigning king of children's poetry... He has an unselfconscious relish for language and word-play that never strays into the patronising dee-dum-dee-dum-dee-dum territory of so much of children's poetry: his are poems that bounce up from the page and demand to be read, rapped, sung and hip-hopped aloud.

Benjamin Zephaniah's poems are short, funny and modern. This is poetry with attitude

Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham and moved to London when he was 22. He has written acclaimed poetry collections for adults and for children. He has his own band and has made rap and dub ranting art forms by combining poetry with music. He spends much time visiting schools, youth clubs and prisons. Benjamin Zephaniah made headline news when he was short-listed for the Chair of Poetry at Oxford University. He lives in London.

A wonderfully irreverent collection of poetry for children and young people touching on anything from vegetables to the Queen and from sewage to the sun. There's plenty of humour as well as poems on racism, pollution and the murder of a cat.

Talking Turkeys

A series of poetry titles for children by many of Britain's greatest poets.

A reissue of TALKING TURKEYS by street poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Talking Turkeys is an unconventional collection of straight-talking poems about heroes, revolutions, racism, love and animal rights, among other subjects, that will entice many new readers to poetry. It is his very first ground-breaking children's poetry collection - playful, clever and provocative - this is performance poetry on the page at its very best. 
 
Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham and then spent some of his early years in Jamaica. He came to London when he was 22 and his first book of poetry for adults was published soon after. He appears regularly on radio and TV including a Desert Island Discs appearance, literary festivals, and has also taken part in plays and films. He is most well-known for his performance poetry with a political edge for both children and adults and gritty teenage fiction. His collections Talking Turkeys, Wicked World and Funky Chickens broke new ground in children's poetry. He is the only Rastafarian poet to be short-listed for the Chairs of Poetry for both Oxford and Cambridge University and has been listed in The Times' list of 50 greatest postwar writers. Benjamin now lives in Lincolnshire.

Benjamin Zephaniah was born in Birmingham and then spent some of his early years in Jamaica. He came to London when he was 22 and his first book of poetry for adults was published soon after. He appears regularly on radio and TV including a Desert Island Discs appearance, literary festivals, and has also taken part in plays and films. He is most well-known for his performance poetry with a political edge for both children and adults and gritty teenage fiction. His collections Talking Turkeys, Wicked World and Funky Chickens broke new ground in children's poetry. He is the only Rastafarian poet to be short-listed for the Chairs of Poetry for both Oxford and Cambridge University and has been listed in The Times' list of 50 greatest postwar writers. Benjamin now lives in East London.

One of the coolest poets for children, Benjamin Zephaniah's Talking Turkeys has something to say! 
Talking Turkeys is the very first ground-breaking children's poetry collection from street poet Benjamin Zephaniah. Playful, clever and provocative, this is performance poetry on the page at its very best.