14PoetryUpdatedBanner

Children's reading lists

13 of the best poetry books for children

An image of the book Verbal Riddim against a red background.

Vintage-VerbalRiddim

Extracts

Windrush 75: an extract from Verbal Riddim

Lit in Colour incomplete lists two – years 5 and 6

Social Impact

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

A picture of a selection of books that feature black characters and heroes on top of a dark blue background

UPDATE-ArticleCard-Main-BooksWithBlackCharacters.jpg

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 (Author, Reader) 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 died on December 7 2023 at the age of 65.

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 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 died on December 7 2023 at the age of 65.

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.

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.

The iconic poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah

Let Dem Know

A playful, funny and thought-provoking collection from the iconic Benjamin Zephaniah. Poems packed with wisdom and laughter, poems that cherish and challenge our world, poems that delight in our differences and similarities. 
‘Dere’s a SonnetUnder me bonnetDere’s a EpicIn me ear ‘Dere’s a NovelIn me navelDere’s a ClassicHere somewhere’ 
 From veggies and vocabulary to pollution and revolution, this new anthology brings together Benjamin Zephaniah’s greatest rhymes, along with a previously unpublished poem and a brand-new foreword by George the Poet. 
 Timeless and essential, Let Dem Know is the perfect introduction to a true original – and inspiration for the young writers, speakers and thinkers of the future.

Benjamin Zephaniah (Author) 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 died on December 7 2023 at the age of 65. George the Poet (Foreword By) George the Poet is a London-born spoken word performer of Ugandan heritage. His innovative brand of musical poetry has won him critical acclaim both as a recording artist and social commentator and has seen his work broadcast to billions of people worldwide. In the summer of 2018, he opened the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with his poem 'The Beauty of Union', and in 2019, his audio offering 'Have You Heard George's Podcast?' won a prestigious Peabody Award and 5 Gold British Podcast Awards, including the highly-coveted Podcast of the Year. The podcast was described by BBC R4 as "a story that could change the world". In 2021 George launched chapter 3 of the podcast, and is embarking on a PhD.

‘a shining light … showing us all the power of words to delight, enthral and challenge’ – Joseph Coelho 
 
Musical, plain-spoken, playful and powerful, Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry has been lighting up British cultural life since the early 1980s. Written to be performed, his funny, serious poems sing with a rare energy, with subjects ranging from racism, pollution and revolution to the lottery, vegetables and his cat, Danny. 
 
This new collection brings together Zephaniah’s three Puffin Poetry books, from his first volume of children’s poetry, Talking Turkeys, to Funky Chickens and Wicked World with a previously unpublished poem and a new foreword by the poet and spoken-word artist George the Poet. 
 
Full of wisdom and laughter, Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry is a tonic for our times – a celebration of people, culture and love that will entice readers young and old, whether they’re well versed in poetry or new to the form.