Photo: Victoria Peckham

Quentin Blake, his exuberant, funny illustrations and childhood go pretty much hand in hand I think. I know my own first 10 years were full of his drawings (for example in many of Roald Dahl’s books), and now he is one of the illustrators most frequently found on the bookcases which M and J have taken over. However, I didn’t know until recently he was also a poet!

ALL JOIN IN (both written and illustrated by Quentin Black) is short collection of poems fantastic for reading out loud (and by out loud I really mean LOUDLY) with children. First of all there is the joyous, eponymous All Join In which opens:

When Sandra plays the trumpet
it makes a lovely sound

And Mervyn on his drum-kit
can be hear for
miles around

Stephanie is brilliant
when she plays her violin

But the very best of all is when
we ALL JOIN IN

Then there is a very mischievous peom, The Hooter Song, about well-meaning children (let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, shall we?) who like to use their (very) noisy instruments to cheer up or otherwise help anyone they perceive to be in need. Nice weather for ducks and Sliding capture quintessential joys of childhood, but my personal favourite is Sorting Out the Kitchen Pans, which opens:

We’re sorting out the Kitchen Pans
DING DONG BANG

Sorting out the Kitchen Pans
BING BONG CLANG

Sorting out the Kitchen Pans
TING BANG DONG

Soritng out the Kitchen Pans
CLANG DING BONG

Although not the most nuanced of poems, I think it is easy to imagine how this is great fun to read loudly and energetically with your kids, who you’ll find are all too keen to ALL JOIN IN!

So the poems are great fun, and then of course there are the illustrations – each page bursting with Blake’s colourful ,quirky and humourous illustrations which celebrate living life to the full. Altogether it adds up to a pretty near perfect book, and one I would wholeheartedly recommend you track down.

Ever since we discovered this book (for £1 in a charity shop!) the girls have been desperate to “sort out the kitchen pans” ie to empty all my kitchen drawers and bang all the saucepans, bread tins, cake tins, lids and anything else they find. Eventually I realised resistance was futile, and caved in (or rather I thought, “Here’s an opportunity for a bit of a spring clean with the help of the girls!” ). They were of course delighted to be given permission to raid the drawers:

Everything was neatly arranged on a quilt….

And then the banging began! BING DONG BANG indeed!

As you can imagine this activity didn’t last a very long time – I may tolerate a lot of mess in the name of creativity but raucous banging can only be allowed to continue for so long, whatever the circumstances! Nevertheless, the kids had a wonderful time, and everything got put back in my drawers in a very neat and orderly manner. A few items I had thought were lost were even recovered from the detritus my kids unearthed! So all in all, not a bad way to spend a wintry afternoon!

ALL JOIN IN: *** (3 stars)

Whilst banging away we didn’t have any music on (we didn’t need to afterall), but we’ve since been listening to the rather more melodious:

Our music making reminded me of two wonderful banging music projects:

This post is part of Poetry Friday, which is being hosted today by Mary Ann at Great Kid Books. For a rather quieter time than we’ve had here, why don’t you pop over and see what other poetry books and poems are being discussed today.

*[Desert Island Disks is a long running radio programme in the UK, where the guest is invited to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island. At the end of the programme the guest has to choose the single record s/he would save if the tide were to wash them all away. The guest on the current episode is Julia Donaldson (the author of The Gruffalo) - so if you get a chance do listen to the show - it will be available online for 7 days following its transmission. Michael Rosen himself appeared on Desert Island Disks in 2006 and his choice of records can be seen here.]

Rosen has written so many brilliant poems it is hard to choose just one, but today we selected Gymnastics, which is in his collection Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here (perfectly illustrated by Quentin Blake). Here’s a snippet for you:

When my mum and dad went out
we moved the chair to the end of the settee
and then we used to take it in turns
to do dive-bombs
off the chair
on to the settee.

Standby
wheeeeeeee
kerflump.
Great.

Jump down on to the floor
back on to the chair
standby for dive-bomb
wheeeeee
kerflump
wow did you see that one?

Like so many of Rosen’s poems this is great fun to read and listen to because it captures a small moment from childhood that we can all relate to. The illicit bouncing on the sofa, the potential for disaster. The strong narrative of the poem and the use of so many onomatopoeic words encourages the reader to say the poem out loud, indeed to virtually act it out. Or not so virtually as the case may be…

…yes, this funny poem did indeed inspire our own gymnastics session at home. We set up a little assault course throughout the house and got bouncing, jumping and climbing. Here’s what it entailed:

1. 10 bounces on M’s bed.

2. Jumping from pillow to pillow to avoid touching the floor until you reached Mum and Dad’s room. Then climb along the loft ladder onto their bed!

3. Then roly-polies (roly-polys?) on J’s bed.

4. Slide down the stairs at break-neck speed on your duvets.

5. Put the hula hoop over your head and do a wiggle.

6. Crawl through the tunnel to the kitchen.

7. Climb over the sofa and along the chairs.

8. Into the final strait – along the ladder and into the tent!

We went round and round the assault course several times; indeed I think the girls would have been up for much more, but after an hour I needed a cup of tea!

When all the “gymnastics equipment” had been tidied up M draw a series of pictures to show Dad what “crazy monkey stuff” we’d been up to (can you recognise the stages?!):

The blurb on the backcover of Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here says “Michael Rosen knows all about YOU. He has written, and Quentin Blake has illustrated, a witty book of poems about the things that you do, that you say, that you know, that you think. Look inside and see if he’s spotted your deepest secrets.” And in the best possible way this is all true – M (and I and my husband) love the truth Rosen captures about childhood. His poems are full of life, humour, and wondeful observation. Please read some as soon as you can!

Quick, Let’s Get Out of Here: I would urge you to get hold of the audiobook as Michael Rosen reads his poems with energy and aplomb – you and your kids won’t regret it. If you can go and see him live, even better! You’ll come home feeling full of rhythm and life.

Whilst bouncing along we’ve been listening to a couple of Michael Rosen’s Desert Island Disks – Cockney Translation by Smiley Culture and Black, Brown, and White by Bill Broonzy. And I’ve added the album Hello, Michael Rosen by Paul Austin Kelly to my Christmas wish list – for a review click here.

As for future gymnastics sessions we’d like to try to:

Note 1: This Michael Rosen shouldn’t be confused with Michael J. Rosen, an American author, who has also written poetry for children – we’ll have to return to him another day!

Note 2: Michael Rosen is on the judging panel of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which I mentioned in my post about Tickle the Duck. The 2009 winners of the Roald Dahl Funny prize were announced last week and they are:

This week’s Poetry Friday host is The Drift Record – do head on over there to find some links to other new discoveries (not just for children), and if you’ve time to leave me a comment, I’d love to know which authors would make it on to your short list of 8 should you be cast away on a desert island…