Poetry, Fiction & Nonfiction for Children, Young Adults & Adults
Poetry is not meant to be scary! It’s the opposite! It can make you laugh, make you feel normal, even brave, especially if you feel sad or alone.
‘100 Ways To Fly’ is my third book of poetry for kids, or as I like to say, ‘for the big kid in all of us’.
When I set out to write ‘100 Ways To Fly’ I wanted this book to be a little different to the others. I work with people who’ve experienced many difficulties in their lives – struggles with their health, mood, confidence. Some have had traumatic things happen. Why can’t poetry help with some of that too? I thought.
So after five years of careful crafting, multiple test runs of poems with children along the way, and exercising my imagination muscles until they ached, I bring you these 100 (or so) poems! Poems to celebrate our amazing senses, poems to twist your tongues and thoughts, poems about creatures that live in the land of nonsense. I chose titles for each section that long to jump off the page and dance or run away, maybe to The Word Zoo or to a Pocket Full of Poems.
I’ve had so much fun creating this collection of poems, and this book has made me realise all over again that poetry is one of the best ways to keep a sense of wonder with the world. My job as a poet is to help lift you up and take you away from the everyday, to use words to give you a new birds eye view of things. ‘
There are so many ways ‘to fly’ in that metaphorical sense and I hope ‘100 Ways To Fly’ does a little of that for everyone who reads it.
