The Sun is Laughing

The eighteen poems selected for this picture book format collection have all but one appeared in previous collections published by Walker. The poems evoke a variety of emotions and feelings and the whole book is shaped so that to read it through is to embark on a memorable unified journey with many stops on the way. The first poem, James Berry's 'Isn't My Name Magical?', establishes with the reader a strong sense of personal identity and thence s/he is taken out into the natural world where there are places to pause (on the beach with Michael Rosen or with the traveller in Shelley's 'Ozymandias'), to wonder (with Richard Edwards at 'The Crab that Writes', with Joseph Bruchac at toads or hopping frogs with Christina Rossetti), to show reverence (Grace Nichols 'For Forest') and to experience awe and poignancy (Hardy's 'Throwing a Tree'). Each poem is clearly presented and illustrated by one of eight artists including Sarah Fox-Davies, Emma Chichester Clark, Colin McNaughton and Cathie Felstead, and both editions offer countless hours of pleasurable immersion, exploration and reflection.