Children's Picture Book. Illustrated Poems. Multiple illustrators with very different artistic styles, double-page spread of a girl on a magic/ flying black Horse (no wings). Witch. Read in late 1990s.

[Siavahda]

My preschool teacher read to us from this book in the late 90s; it was in English and the illustrations were very saturated and bright, so I think it was recently published at the time, not pre-90s. I think there must have been multiple writers; there was definitely multiple illustrators because the pictures varied hugely in style. My parents bought me my own copy and I read it over and over, so I hope I'll recognise it when I see it.

I could have sworn Korky Paul was one of the illustrators, but none of the books on his Goodreads page seem quite right. But I seem to remember a double-page spread of a poem about some kind of witch, very reminescent of Paul's Winnie the Witch books.

My clearest memory is one double-page spread of a girl on a black horse; it was magical somehow, maybe flying, but it didn’t have wings. I think the poem may have been about the girl and the horse flying over the world; one page was illustrated like night, the other page may have had dawn creeping up on them.

I've checked out The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry and The Puffin Twentieth Century Collection of Verse, and I don’t think it's either of them. But I don’t remember what the cover looked like, only that it was a paperback.

It wasn’t in sections, a bunch of pages by one poet/illustrator, then a different one for another few pages; they were all mixed up, one illustrator then a completely different one on the next page.

I've tried databases of children's books and looked all over the place with all the search terms I could think of, but no luck. Hoping someone here can help me!

[Becca]

Can you remember any of the specific poems or authors that were in it?

[Siavahda]

Alas no, that would make it so much easier! But I was about 5, I didn't retain those details.

[Becca]

That's understandable! We will do our best :)

[Siavahda]

I really appreciate it!

[Rainbowheart]

About how many pages long was the book?

[Siavahda]

I would guess around 50 or less. But that's a guess. It wasn’t a very thick book, there’s no way it could have been 100 pages.

[Kris]

Siavahda, did the poems have a common theme (e.g., fantasy, animals or horses)?

[Siavahda]

I think a lot of them had some kind of magical element - the flying horse, and I think there was one about a witch - but I can't swear they ALL did. I really only remember the girl on the horse clearly.

[Siavahda]

Bump! Does this sound at all familiar to anybody?

[Kris]

Siavahda, I copied a few book details to the topic header. Feel free to edit it.

[Siavahda]

Thank you! I don't think it needs any editing, that's pretty on-point.

[Rainbowheart]

Does anything on this list look familiar?

Best Children's Poetry Books

[Siavahda]

Alas no - went through each page carefully but nothing jogged my memory.