We are living in a golden age for children’s literature
Picture books are more beautiful than ever
Illustrations are rich, informative and beautiful
Narrative non fiction is incredibly powerful
And poetry for children is being used in clever creative ways
Once in a while a book comes along that makes my whole family feel excited
With an age range of 8 years from littlest to biggest bookworm
To engage, enchant, enthuse and inspire them all
It takes a super special, magical book
If You Go Down To The Woods Today
Is one such book
They all love it for different reasons
This is a poetry book
A seek and find book
A nature study
Especially combined with The Lost Words
This beautiful book has a bit of everything
For everyone
Have a look …
After reading this book
Many many times
We decided to take our own little bear
For a walk around our local area
Searching for signs of spring
We also enjoyed some alfresco reading
Something we plan to do much more of
As the temperatures rise this spring
We have been writing some poetry of our own
Inspired by Rachel Piercey
We watched a video with the lovely Rachel
Talking about poetry and showing the children how to write acrostics
Esther has not stopped writing since we did this activity
She loved the activity so much she just wanted to keep on writing
And Rachel kindly read the children’s poems and offered the most lovely feedback
Esther has now decided that she is going to make her poems into a book
She is going to illustrate her book and sell copies
To raise some money for The Lullaby Trust
I am so proud of her
And so incredibly grateful to Rachel and Freya for creating such a wonderful book
Here are the children’s poems
And here are the amazing comments that Rachel Piercey sent to the children
I may have cried actual tears as I read them for the first time
To have a writer take the time to really feedback to the children
It has meant the world to them and to me
BEAR
What a beautiful poem! You’ve searched for just the right shimmery words yourself and found them! I particularly love the phrase ‘Roamers of the forests and the mountains’ and how you use alliteration to emphasise the bear’s important features, for example in the line ‘calm…careful…cuddling…cubs’.BEAR
You get so much vivid detail into four short lines! I particularly love that phrase ‘sleek in the shadows’ – it’s beautiful and frightening both at once! And then you contrast the power of the bear with how it rests ‘calmly’, which is really striking. Fantastic poem!BEAR
This is a fabulously menacing poem! I love the idea of the bear ‘enveloping the forest with fear’ – the word ‘envelopes’ gets across really effectively how the presence of the bear changes the whole atmosphere. And that last line is so vivid – ‘rub’ and ‘rough’ chime very satisfyingly together, and ‘the rough of the trees’ is a lovely, surprising phrase.SLOTH
This poem captures the character of the sloth so well! I love how you start with the repetition of ‘slow’, it creates immediate music, which you build on with your ripples of alliteration. ‘Sleepy reward’ is a wonderful phrase! Gorgeous poem!ROBIN / SNOW LEOPARD
Two beautiful poems! I love that phrase ‘Nimble in the skies’ and how you tie the poem together with the ‘flies’ and ‘skies’ rhyme, whilst keeping it nimble and free like the bird! In the Snow Leopard poem, I really enjoyed how you introduced the beauty of the ‘Silver smooth coat’ before telling us it’s ‘Never noticed’ – it feels like we are seeing something special. And I love that phrase ‘Peak ruler!’FOX
I could just see a fox in my mind’s eye as I read this poem, you describe it so vividly! I love the energy implied in ‘fiery orange’ and I really enjoyed the clever trick of putting ‘extremely’ around the letter ‘X’ – it really suits the character of the fox! Lovely alliteration in the last line too, it prints those last words in the reader’s head. Another amazing poem!Please pass these comments on to your fantastic young writers! I was so impressed with their imagination and phrase-making.
How wonderful are they?
Rachel has recorded three short videos to encourage children to write poems
Inspired by the book If You Go Down To The Woods Today
The videos are still available on Instagram
On the Magic Cat Publishing page
We absolutely love this book
The illustrations are amazing and full of little details
You can read this over and over and always find something new
This book would make a wonderful gift for young readers
Perfect present for Easter
For first birthdays and christenings
And just because it is an amazing book to share with little ones
It will definitely make you want to head out for a woodland adventure