Gemma McLaughlin reviews A Whale Of A Time, selected by Lou Peacock and illustrated by Matt Hunt, published by Nosy Crow...

POETRY can often seem intimidating with its maze of language tricks and complex metaphors.

A Whale Of A Time is the latest anthology for children to show that these techniques don’t have to be scary, and in fact can be bright and fun, with the sense of learning new and secret codes along the way.

Lou Peacock has carefully curated one funny poem for each day of the year, with each page brought to life by the illustrations of Matt Hunt. The wide array of different styles, jokes and stories told will show any young reader that poems may be more exciting than expected.

The idea in the clever and concise introduction that stuck with me is that the poems within this book are meant to be shared. As a young adult, it’s reminiscent of reading a comedy book, such as the relatable family stories by Marian Keyes, and calling over friends and family to recite the sentence which just made you laugh out loud.

However, it also brings back a deep childhood nostalgia of winning a Christmas cracker at the table, triumphantly putting on a paper crown and reading out the joke or riddle from a piece of paper.

This anthology, in every page, is a call to the wonder of that feeling.

Comedy, whether it’s prose, or in this case poetry, is an exciting form of art because it aims to create some kind of physical reaction from a small smile to great, unstoppable laughter. The social experience of reading one of these out seeing people react to the clever wit just as you did, will bring a spark of joy unlikely to be forgotten.

In this spirit of sharing and relating to others through comedy, the format of the book is that each poem is assigned a date and the chapters are months, with each page having anywhere from one to five poems grouped together with an illustration to match.

For example, the page allocated to poems for August 16 to 18 is all about the unfairness of bedtime when one is wide awake, desperate to see what others in the house are up to or finish just one more chapter of a great book.

This universal feeling is pulled together on the page with the words sitting upon a scene of a child reading in bed by the bright and yellow glow of a torch.

Within this format, one could easily find themselves greedily reading the whole book at once, but there are a myriad of ways to enjoy this collection.

You could follow the order and read with your child one poem a day to discuss or simply laugh at, read a page at once on the same theme whether that be annoying siblings or summer heat, or leave the included bookmark ribbon at a favourite to open up and impress friends.

No matter how A Whale Of A Time is enjoyed, it certainly will be as it brings the educational quality of well-considered rhyme structures and the showcasing or bending of stylistic rules together with real and unpretentious fun. This makes the perfect gift, whether you check the poem assigned to the recipient’s birthday or your own first, a whale of a time is guaranteed!