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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

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21 books featuring Black heroes and characters every child should read

Wicked World!

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

Welcome to the wild and wicked words of Benjamin Zephaniah. You'll find loads of cool people who make up our world in this rapping, happening hip-hop collection. From the South Pole to Mongolia and the Himalayas, this is a real world tour of poems about people and places, cultures and nationalities across our planet. 
 
Includes poems about Inuits, Celts, the history of Britain, Maories, the Dalai Lama, the North and South Poles, and much more - a rhyming round-the-world trip. 
 
Poems that bounce up from the page and demand to be read, rapped, sung and hip-hopped aloud - Independent on Sunday

Poems that bounce up from the page and demand to be read, rapped, sung and hip-hopped aloud

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.

Welcome to the wild and wicked words of Benjamin Zephaniah. You'll find loads of cool people who make up our world in this rapping, happening hip-hop collection. From the South Pole to Mongolia and the Himalayas, this is a real world tour of poems about people and places, cultures and nationalities across our planet. 
 
Includes poems about Inuits, Celts, the history of Britain, Maories, the Dalai Lama, the North and South Poles, and much more - a rhyming round-the-world trip.

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

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 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.

Benjamin Zephaniah

George the Poet

The iconic poetry of Benjamin Zephaniah

‘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.

Benjamin Zephaniah

Books by Benjamin Zephaniah

Articles featuring Benjamin Zephaniah

13 of the best poetry books for children

Windrush 75: an extract from Verbal Riddim

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

21 books featuring Black heroes and characters every child should read

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