A Shame to Miss Poetry

by Anne Fine

Anne Fine is the 2001-3 Children's Laureate. A multi award-winner, she has collected poetry she feels it would be a shame for any child to miss. A SHAME TO MISS...1 is aimed at junior readers and is a diverse mixture of classic, well-loved poetry like Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky' or Tennyson's 'Break, Break, Break' alongside poems from more modern poets like Kit Wright, Brian Patten and Diana Hendry. Other poets featured include Hillaire Belloc, Walter de la Mare, Eleanor Farjeon, Robert Graves, Kipling and many more than 70 poems in total.

209 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2002

About the author

Though readers often find themselves inadvertently laughing aloud as they read Anne Fine's novels, as she herself admits, "a lot of my work, even for fairly young readers, raises serious social issues. Growing up is a long and confusing business. I try to show that the battle through the chaos is worthwhile and can, at times, be seen as very funny." In 1994, this unique combination of humour and realism inspired the hit movie MRS. DOUBTFIRE, based on Anne's novel MADAME DOUBTFIRE and starring the late comedic genius Robin Williams.

Anne is best known in her home country, England, as a writer principally for children, but over the years she has also written eight novels for adult readers. Seven of these she describes as black - or sour - comedies, and the first, THE KILLJOY, simply as "dead black". These novels have proved great favourites with reading groups, causing readers to squirm with mingled horror and delight as she peels away the layers in all too familiar family relationships, exposing the tangled threads and conflicts beneath. (It's perhaps not surprising that Anne has openly expressed astonishment at the fact that murder in the domestic setting is not even more common.)

Anne has written more than sixty books for children and young people. Amongst numerous other awards, she is twice winner of both the Carnegie Medal, Britain's most prestigious children's book award, and the Whitbread Award. Twice chosen as Children's Author of the Year in the British Book Awards, Anne Fine was also the first novelist to be honoured as Children's Laureate in the United Kingdom. In 2003, Anne became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an OBE. Her work has been translated into forty five languages.

Anne Fine lives in the north of England and has two grown up daughters.

Reviews

[S A]

'A Shame To Miss' is a beautiful collection of poems by children's author, Anne Fine . I discovered some of my favourite poems in here. The poems are written by a wide variety of famous as well as less known poets from all sorts of time periods.Anne Fine fans will not be disappointed in her picks.

She also includes footnotes written by her regarding her views on that particular poem and also context on the selected poems.This book is specifically intended for children,(though I see no harm in reading it), and Fine's picks reflect that.While some of the poems were funny,catchy and unique , others I did not bother myself with. On the whole, as the title says, it really is 'A Shame To Miss'. :)

[Mairéad]

A collection of classic poems for school children with footnotes from Anne Fine suggesting follow up activities, explaining vocabulary and offering anecdotes from her own childhood. I picked out a few that I think will still appeal to my pupils but I fear most are too old fashioned to hold the attention of my students!

[Chloe Turner]

A range of poets with lots of different examples. Words are explained or children could find these out. I liked the lesson by Edward Lucie Smith

[Francesca]

This is wonderful book to read when you just want to read fun poetry!!