Rabbiting On, and Other Poems

by Kit Wright, Posy Simmonds

Includes:
Rabbiting On;
Dad and the Cat and the Tree

Genres: Poetry

95 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1978

About the author

Kit Wright (born 17 June 1944 in Crockham Hill, Kent) is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and (jointly) the Heinemann Award. After a scholarship to Oxford University, he worked as a lecturer in Canada, then returned to England and a position in the Poetry Society. He is currently a full-time writer.

Reviews

[Liáne Caomhánach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved this book for so many years. My Aunt gave it to me before I left Ireland to go live in Australia. I have read it front to back so many times, I can recite most poems off by heart. I now have a daughter of my own and she is 6. I read her some of the stories tonight and she loved them. Fell asleep at the 4th one. I should buy another copy, this one is very old looking.

[Francesca Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I also read this poem in 'The Oxford Book of Children's Poetry'. I really liked it as it showes different meanings of rabbit as in a noun and a verb. I think children would be able to work from this to make there own versions which could be really interesting.

[Daithi O'connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short poem about a cat who gets stuck in a tree. Dad tries to get him out of the tree and comedy ensues. This is a rhyming poem. The last word of each line rhymes with the last word of another line. The language is nice and simple with very few if any words needing to be explained.

Rhyming is a crucial part of teaching children an awareness of phonics. This poem could be used as a way of both reinforcing phonetic knowledge and also exploring new rhyming words. The poem is perfect for use in a Key stage 1 classroom. A possible lesson could be children saying to the poem out loud doing actions to reinforce the rhyming lines. In this way the children will first have to identify the rhyming words thus improving phonetic awareness.

Another possible lesson could be to cut up the lines of the poem and put children in small groups and they must rearrange the poem and put in it its correct order based on the rhyming words.

[Jacqueline Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Granddad is dead and I'm sorry about is my favourite and I can still recite it word for word now.... arrrh my childhood thanks you.
My family who had to listen to me over and over again do not.

[Rogermue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious funny poetry. I remember Dad and the Cat and the Tree,
told from the perspective of the watching child and also
Give up slimming, Mum.