'For a long while Beowulf leaned on the blood-stained sword; his heart was pounding. A man with the strength of thirty! Slayer of Grendel and slayer of the sea-wolf! A hero without equal in this middle-world!' The story of Beowulf was written down as an epic poem in Anglo-Saxon England. It recounts the heroic struggles of one man against supernatural monsters. Kevin Crossley-Holland's retelling unleashes the excitement in this tale of the triumph of good over evil, while unforgettable illustrations from Charles Keeping capture every brooding moment and explosive episode. This new edition features rescanned artwork to capture the breath-taking detail of Keeping's illustrations and a striking new cover.

When he came across an old-English limerick that made him laugh, playwright Ranjit Bolt started writing nonsensical verse to entertain his friends. On a whim he decided to staple some together and offer them at a market in his home town of Cambridge when not writing plays. Readers would go away chuckling to themselves and the booklets flew away. Their chuckling response led to A Lion Was Learning to Ski.

With a space inside to write your own message, this charming poetry-pamphlet is the perfect gift for any time of year.

Baby birds singing in the spring; bees humming on a summer's day; an autumn harvest of sweet, juicy apples; the "criss-cross patterns" of bare branches in winter... Originally appearing in the award-winning anthology A First Book of Nature, the ten poems collected here perfectly capture the simple loveliness of the world around us. Nicola Davies skillfully interweaves fact and fiction in her keenly observant verse, while Mark Hearld's pictures beautifully reproduce the colours of the seasons on woodfree paper. With a space inside the jacket for you to write your own message, this pocket-sized pamphlet is the perfect present for any time of year – and comes in a packet including an envelope, ready for popping in the post!

"Nicola Davies is one of our finest writers for children about the natural world" – The Sunday Times

It's time to reclaim poetry. Collected by international poetry sensation Nikita Gill, SLAM! You're Gonna Wanna Hear This is a joyful celebration of the ground-breaking poets making their voices heard in the spoken word scene. Empowering, inspiring and often hilarious, SLAMs are a platform for well-known and emerging talent from all walks of life where every style of poetry has a home. With poets such as Raymond Antrobus, Sophia Thakur and Dean Atta guest starring alongside up-and-coming poets, this is the perfect introduction to world of modern poetry. Each poet will introduce their poem, tell you a little bit about themselves and give you a tip for preparing brilliant performance poetry.

caterpillar caterpillar caterpillar cake it's the only thing that my mum can make Would you like to eat a caterpillar cake? Join a rocket race into space? See crazy crocodiles at the zany zoo or play with a furry, purry cat? Wherever these 16 fun-filled poems lead you, they will brighten your day. Splashing at the seaside, storytime at school, playing in the bath or riding home on Daddy's shoulders - this brilliant, read-aloud collection for young children has lots to join in with and lots to explore in the brightly coloured illustrations.

A classic collection of festive poems, stories and activities by Kate Greenaway-winning author, Shirley Hughes. This beautiful Christmas anthology contains winter adventures, seasonal poems, festive recipes and easy-to-make craft activities as well as Shirley Hughes' trademark warm and classic illustrations. Whether reading stories and poems to little ones or encouraging them to make beautiful crafts and Christmas treats, this book is the perfect introduction to this very special time of year.

"There's a rumble in the jungle, there's a whisper in the tress; the animals are waking up and rustling the leaves!" Join this rhyming safari and meet everyone from the elphing elephant to the gangly giraffe, and maybe even the terrible tiger!

There's nothing like a good monster bedtime story to give you the warm fuzzies! Discover all kinds of loveable monsters living in the pages of this vibrant, colorful rhyming book.

If you are a dreamer, come in, If you are a dreamer, A wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, A magic bean buyer . . . Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings is at once outrageously funny and profound.

'Poet-Linc: poetry slam' is the unique documentation of a contest created to celebrate an untapped pool of talented young artists from New York, composing their original poetry around a central theme: "I have a voice". Collated with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts the world's leading presenter of artistic programming and a national leader in arts education and community relations and non-profit organisations from each of the city's five boroughs, the season's initiative centred around a rationale of assisted teaching of participants via professional guidance, to help each of these new "slam poets" find their own individual voice. The project looks to simultaneously alter the perception of the Center as a Manhattan-centric institution, highlighting a pluralistic and accessible approach to its work through collaboration with progressive community organisations such as Curtis High School, El Puente, Girls Write Now, Global Writes, SAYA! (South Asian Youth Actions) and Urban Word. Divided into three thematically diverse rounds Declarative Poem, Narrative Poem and Free Verse/Free Style over an intensive six-week period, the competition comprised a fierce series of 'battles' between the separate community organisations involved, each competing for just two spots in the Grand Slam Final. 'Poet-Linc: poetry slam' contains over 100 poems from the stars of the series, alongside work from established world names such as Darian Dauchan, Erik Maldonado and Shanelle Gabriel, as well as critical essays on the medium and the season. The poems themselves portray a varied and illuminating survey into the attuned teenage mind, exploring and often inverting themes of race, love, lust, family and class in the playful, sardonic and relentless ebb and flow of the poetry slam itself. ILLUSTRATIONS: 40 colour and b/w illustrations

"Make the Earth your companion. Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do." With this powerfully reverent refrain, readers are reminded to treat the world around us with the respect it deserves and the care it needs. Mountains, lakes, rivers, grasslands, forests, deserts--even the sky above--all of our natural environs have some message to impart, if we will but listen. Picturesque illustrations imbue the images with mysticism, making visual connections to not only the words themselves but to the feelings of wonder they evoke.