Beneath the Moon by Hazel Bowden £4.99 The Poetry Dragon (thepoetrydragon@ntlworld.com) is a beautifully illustrated, glossy-paged square softback with some delightful and charming rhymes, mostly based on animals. It is not sentimental, for example one of my favourite poems here is called ‘Lightfoot’ and is about an
urban fox:
Lightfoot was born beneath a shed
and he learns to ‘hunt’ from bins.
As side by side we learn to live,
Who loses, and tell me, who wins?
Some of these poems are delightfully funny, such as the adder who is no good at addition, and the play on words in Cat-A-Strophes! but behind it all is a serious concern for nature and the environment. This is a great book for nature-loving kids or children who need to be introduced to the animal world.
Angela Topping 