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John Agard is a playwright, poet and children's writer from Guyana, who moved to the United Kingdom in 1977. He worked for the Commonwealth Institute from 1978 to 1985, travelling throughout the United Kingdom as a touring reader promoting the Caribbean culture to over 2000 schools. He currently resides in Lewes, near Brighton with his partner, the poet Grace Nichols. He became the first Writer in Residence at the South Bank Centre in London and became Poet in Residence at the BBC in London as well. He has won a total of five awards for his works, including the Paul Hamlyn Award for Poetry in 1997 and the Cholmondeley Award in 2004. John was Poet-in-Residence at the National Maritime Museum from August to November 2008.
Interest Age 8-12 Reading Age 7 Shona loves words and discovering new ones, so she’s fascinated by the professor on TV talking about her campaign to protect dying languages. Shona’s teacher is a language-lover too and encourages the class to create a language nest. The class fills up with words from the different languages the children speak and there’s a special surprise guest at their World Language Day celebration. A story that takes real pleasure in words and language, this is a lively and entertaining read. Shona, her friends and family are fun to be with and every reader will pick up words they didn’t know to add to their own language nest. ~ Andrea Reece Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 7+ Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category. Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range.
A brand-new anthology of poems by winner of the Queens Medal and the Eleanor Farjeon Award, John Agard Do triangles ever get into a tangle when their sides meet their angles? In this brand new collection of poems, John Agard draws on themes from nature and science to identity and inclusion, to inspire every reader. Here, we become transported by words and form on a journey through past and present. We are invited to answer life's questions, while having a great deal of fun at the same time ...Answers are folly when questions are bliss? Without questions, do I exist?
A powerful short novel that will undoubtedly challenge readers to consider the reality of racism and the Black Lives Matter campaign.
My name is Book and I ll tell you the story of my life. Non fiction like you've never read it before!
Interest Age 7-12 Reading Age 7 Shona hates bats, horrid night-time beasties with their fluttery mouse-heads! To her they seem spooky and up to no good. But bats are part of her life whether she likes it or not. First one appears in her sitting-room disturbing her family’s cosy evening; then her teacher, who loves bats so much she has the Chinese symbol for bat as a tattoo, decides Shona’s class Hallowe’en assembly will be on the little creatures. The more she learns about them, the more Shona realises how lucky – serendipitous Miss Bates says – it was that bats moved into her house. John Agard cleverly mixes together natural history, myths about bats and Shona’s own family stories, and this charming little book teaches us that people, like bats, don’t fit the labels we give them. ~ Andrea Reece Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 7+ Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category. Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range.
Tells us the story of the book! Told by none other than Book himself, this work begins with stories told from person to person, to writings on clay tablets to the development of parchment, right up to modern day and the ebook. But Book's not a straightforwardly chronological chap; he can't help musing - and his musings, whether they're on the evolution of the alphabet, libraries, book-burning or blurbs, are delightful and thought-provoking. Years of reflection and observation have gone into this charming title - John Agard signed the contract with Walker 16 years ago! Written by the winner of the 2012 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, this is an utterly original, unique story of the book.
Interest Age 7-12 Reading Age 7+ A magical story about bringing people together. Shona has met a lot of apparently very different people on her day out with her Dad. At the Natural History Museum she meets Lucy who actually lived 3.2 million years ago. On the underground on the way home there are all kinds of people – Pinstripe Man, Kindle Woman, the iPod twins, Tattoo Fellow and Doctor Bananas who can do all kinds of magic. They all look completely different and seem to behave very differently. But it turns out that they have a lot in common, too! Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 7+
Age 9+. Winner of The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education's Poetry Award for 2009 and nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal 2010. Brilliantly original, John Agard’s poetic reworking of Dante’s Inferno for a young, modern audience is a thrilling journey of discovery. Told in thirteen Cantos which follow the hero in a hoodie, it takes readers into the Circles of Hell where, among others, they confront Frankenstein, the Furies and Crone. Each is a life changing experience. Satoshi Kitamura’s illustrations confirm the dark experiences of the young hero.
Winner of The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education's Poetry Award for 2009 and nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal 2010. Brilliantly original, John Agard’s poetic reworking of Dante’s Inferno for a young, modern audience is a thrilling journey of discovery. Told in thirteen Cantos which follow the hero in a hoodie, it takes readers into the Circles of Hell where, among others, they confront Frankenstein, the Furies and Crone. Each is a life changing experience. Satoshi Kitamura’s illustrations confirm the dark experiences of the young hero.
Selected by a distinguished independent panel of experts including our editorial expert, Julia Eccleshare, for Diverse Voices - 50 of the best Children's Books celebrating cultural diversity in the UK. One of the the UK's top performance poets explores issues of race and identity in this classic collection.
Books make good pets and don't need going to the vet. You don't have to keep them on a lead or throw them a stick. They'll wag their words whenever you flick their dog-eared pages. Even howl an ancient tale for the inward-listening ear. Did you know that a book can take you anywhere? You only need to turn the pages of a story, and in a moment, you and your book could be crossing the waves in a pirate ship... or diving with mermaids... or even snoozing with a dragon. Books really DO make good pets! Why don't you peep inside this one, and take your mind on an adventure? This delightful original picture book poem is the perfect gift for anyone who delights in the magic of a good book. Agard's evocative, lyrical style is perfectly complemented with illustrations by Momoko Abe, whose colourful visuals add character, transporting the reader into an enchanting world of imagination.
John Agard has been broadening the canvas of British poetry for the past 40 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. In The Coming of the Little Green Man, his eighth Bloodaxe collection, we enter a world of play and parable - in which the little green man stands for all pesky outsiders - in provocative poems charged with contemporary resonance. Which box should the little green man tick on the question of identity? Will the little green man survive as a minority of one in a multiracial London? What if the little green man volunteers to give blood to 21st-century humankind? Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, he brings to bear his trademark trickster wit that bridges the metaphysical and the political, the comic and the poignant, the oral and the literary. His Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems (2009) was followed by Travel Light Travel Dark (2013) and Playing the Ghost of Maimonides (2016).
Interest Age 8-12 Reading Age 7 Shona loves words and discovering new ones, so she’s fascinated by the professor on TV talking about her campaign to protect dying languages. Shona’s teacher is a language-lover too and encourages the class to create a language nest. The class fills up with words from the different languages the children speak and there’s a special surprise guest at their World Language Day celebration. A story that takes real pleasure in words and language, this is a lively and entertaining read. Shona, her friends and family are fun to be with and every reader will pick up words they didn’t know to add to their own language nest. ~ Andrea Reece Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant or dyslexic readers aged 7+ Barrington Stoke is the foremost publisher of dyslexia friendly books and those for reluctant readers. Here on Lovereading4kids we are constantly selecting new titles and refreshing our special dyslexia friendly category. Click here to view our current selection which is broken down by age range.
A powerful short novel that will undoubtedly challenge readers to consider the reality of racism and the Black Lives Matter campaign.
A tender, moving and joyous story from one of our nation's premier poets, John Agard From above earth, from above sky, from below earth, from under water, come all you little persons come exactly as you are. Come little bird person, come little bee person, come little tree person - little persons from all over the world join together to celebrate the dance of life and love in this stunning poem from John Agard. Stunningly illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle, this is a book that both little persons and big persons will treasure and pore over for a lifetime, and is a true poem of our time. 'A lyrical collaboration . . . a joyful, tender dance, celebrating people, places and the glory of existence.' Guardian 'This book is a celebration of childhood and the natural world in all its rich diversity.' BookTrust
From above earth, from above sky,from below earth, from under water,come all you little personscome exactly as you are.Come little bird person, come little bee person, come little tree person - little persons from all over the world join together to celebrate the dance of life and love in this stunning poem from John Agard. Stunningly illustrated by Jessica Courtney-Tickle, this is a book that both little persons and big persons will treasure and pore over for a lifetime, and is a true poem of our time.
My name is Book and I ll tell you the story of my life. Non fiction like you've never read it before!
John Agard has been broadening the canvas of British poetry for the past 35 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. In this new collection, he puts on the mask of Moses Maimonides (aka the Rambam), the Medieval Jewish rabbi and physician who wrote his Guide of the Perplexed in Arabic at a time when Judaism, Islam and Christianity cross-fertilised each other in Moorish Spain. Now the ghost of Maimonides returns to the contemporary world, no less perplexed, and trailed by the figure of the Jester, whose wise fool musings shadow Maimonides' discourses on a range of subjects from sectarian fanaticism to God's incorporeal lack of taste buds. In Playing the Ghost of Maimonides, the rabbinical, the parabolical, the nonsensical, are symphonically interwoven in a thought-provoking romp of metaphysical shapeshifting that resonates with the current climate of extremism.
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