The River’s a Singer
The river’s a singer,
As he dances along,
The countryside echoes
The notes of his song.
A lively, joyous collection of poems, ‘The River’s a Singer’ offers a wonderful range works, celebrating nature, family, cultural heritage and identity. Many of the poems feature elements of Jamaican patois and, for those who need it, there is a very useful, detailed glossary at the end of the book with a few additional notes at the end of some poems. However, there is nothing quite like hearing Valerie Bloom perform her poems- an inspirational treat everyone should enjoy!
This collection contains a mix of new and previously published poetry, such as ‘Fruits’ and ‘Outdooring’, using a wide range of styles and techniques. As well as being wonderful for performing, sharing or reading alone, many of the poems here would make wonderful models to explore and enjoy with a class.
‘The River’, for example, could be used as inspiration for a topic about rivers. Through using personification and metaphor, the personality of the river is explored, and this could lead to discussions about the vocabulary chosen to capture this with children then offering their own suggestions and considering how these might alter the meaning/ effect of the poem. Word play- and history- are introduced in ‘Henry the Eighth’ and ‘Watt Tyler’ and there is a lovely collection of Christmas poems, offering a Caribbean flavour to the celebrations. ‘Christmas is Here’ gives a wonderful sense of building expectations and excitement and could easily be used as a model for children to create their own poems about Christmas – or other important occasions/ events. Another poem which lends itself really well to encouraging children to create their own work is ‘When Granny’ which would also allow them to try to capture emotions through phrases and words!
One of my favourite poems in this book is ‘The Artist’, but there are so many which could be commented on.
The River’s a Singer
Valerie Bloom, illustrated by Sophie Bass
Macmillan ISBN: 978-1035043767