60 classic Australian poems for children edited by Christopher Cheng
Ill. by Gregory Rogers. Random House Australia, 2009. ISBN
9781741664140.
(Age 9+) Recommended.
'Hist! Hark!
The night is
very dark,
And we've to
go a mile or so
Across the
Possum Park.'
Did
Australian rhyming verse really lose its appeal or do we just need new
editions
to replace the tired poetry books in our libraries? The second scenario
is the
more likely. Children are still enthralled and delighted by the drama,
humour
and wit of poems by such writers as C.J. Dennis, Banjo Paterson, Henry
Kendall
and Henry Lawson.
Christopher Cheng
recalls the pleasure of reading and reciting Australian verse as a
child. He has
chosen 60 poems for a hard cover volume which is aptly named. Adults
will
recognise most of the titles and remember many of the opening lines by
heart. Award
winning artist Gregory Rogers has provided the pencil and wash
illustrations.
The editor
has restored lines which are often omitted because they speak of the
hardships
of life in the past. He has also included brief 'Poet biographies', an
'Index
of first lines', an 'Index of poets', a list of sources in which the
poems were
first published and occasional notes about the history of the poems.
Most of the
collection dates from the turn of the last century. It encapsulates the
best of
a tradition of storytelling through the medium of performance poetry.
Christopher's
Cheng's book will help to ensure that the tradition lives on.
Elizabeth Bor