A wonderful collection of poetry covering all the ups and downs of football. Marvellous stuff from the author of those playground classics Heard it in the playground and Please Mrs Butler.
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Friendly Matches is poetry for children at its best, combining wit and wisdom with occasionally heartbreaking humour tinged with sadness. And the real joy of this fine collection by Allan Ahlberg is that boys will simply love it (no matter if they are 7 or 67).
This neat little book is packed with 29 poems about the ups and downs of football, following the boys who want to play for England, to the kids who don't get picked for the teams in the playground, through to school football matches and games in the park: dreamers galore, waiting to score that all important goal for England.
As a child Allan was born in Croydon, but grew up in Oldbury in the Black Country. He says that if he hadn't grown up to be a writer, he would have loved to have been a soccer player.
As an adult Allan always dreamed of being a writer, but tried his hand at many other jobs before he achieved his ambition. He was a postman, grave-digger, plumber's mate and teacher - it was teaching that gave him such sharp insights into the minds of children, and enabled him to write his perfectly observed poetry about primary school life
As an artist Allan has collaborated with many illustrators, including Andre Amstutz, Gillian Tyler and Katharine McEwen, as well as his late wife, Janet Ahlberg (nee Hall) and his daughter Jessica Ahlberg. He has won numerous awards for his books including, the Kurt Maschler Award in 1986, The Children's Book Award in 1987, the Blue Peter Book Award 2001, and The Children's Book Award: Books for Young Children award 2002.
You can see Allan reading from Peepo! in this video:
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