Description

Gabriel Fitzmaurice's Best-Loved Poems for Children is the first collected edition of the Kerry poet's work for young readers, four decades of poems from a man who spent more than thirty years teaching in the village school in Moyvane, with a new introduction by poet Enda Wyley and wonderfully wicked illustrations by Bob Ó Cathail.

Meet a boy who can talk horse (and cow, and dog, and fur). A girl who's proud to be exactly who she is. A puppy nobody wanted, until Christmas Eve. And a grandad who is, quite simply, the best friend in the world.

From the glorious mess of school tours and bathtime to the hush of a bedtime prayer, Fitzmaurice writes exactly the way children think: funny, honest, a little bit rude and unapologetically true. These are poems by a teacher who listened to children for a living, poems that know what it's like to be small in a very big world.

This is Irish children's poetry at its warmest and most mischievous - made for reading aloud at bedtime, sharing in the classroom and giving as a gift, for readers aged 4+ and the parents, grandparents and teachers who read to them.

Read them aloud. Laugh out loud. And don't be surprised if you find yourself hugging someone a little tighter afterwards. Because, as the poet himself says, if you can't laugh or cry at these poems, you're OLD.