Kate Wakeling – Poetry Roundabout

CLiPPA Shortlist 2022

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Liz Brownlee

Being Me, Poems About Thoughts, Feelings and Worries, by me, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha, Otter-Barry Books, has been shortlisted for CLiPPA 2022 (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Poetry Award). This is a huge honour and we are thrilled.

Being Me was written in consultation with leading developmental psychologist Karen Goodall, and is illustrated by Victoria Jane Wheeler. This is what CLPE has to say about it:

“A collaborative anthology between three poets and an artist, singing together in harmony. Concern for the child and quality of the word is absolutely at the forefront here: these well-crafted poems articulate with skill and care a wide breadth of complex emotions and situations that may well be familiar to children, but they may not yet have the language to describe.

This timely collection strikes balance between difficult issues and hope, without the latter ever feeling forced or patronising. It is now more important than ever for children to be in touch with their emotions and to share with them the tools to help express and navigate them, which this collection performs brilliantly. Articulate, empathetic, and invites profound connection between poet and reader.”

Also shortlisted was the wonderful Val Bloom, with Stars With Flaming Tails, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max, also published by Otter-Barry Books, in a hat trick for Otter-Barry Books, Matt Goodfellow was shortlisted again with his lovely poetry book for younger readers, Caterpillar Cake, illustrated by Krin Patel-Sage, Kate Wakeling for Cloud Soup, illustrated by Elina Braslina, published by The Emma Press, and Manjeet Mann with her verse novel The Crossing, published by Penguin, beautifully and poetically interweaving the lives of two teenagers, one a boy refugee from Eritrea, and the other a girl in Britain struggling to come to terms with the loss of her mother.

Good luck to everyone at the award ceremony, which will be on July 8th at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall!

Shaping the World, 40 Historical Heroes in Verse

Come the Launch of Shaping the World!

Posted on April 16, 2021 by Liz Brownlee

Are you a teacher? Do you have a class you’d like to introduce to female and male historical heroes – via shape poems?

Are you free at 9:30 am on the 22nd of April?

Are you a shape poem fan?

If so. come and find out how penicillin was discovered (by being messy!), why Shakespeare is so loved, who invented the first sliced loaf of bread, or the system known as the Socratic method still used to solve crime today, and hear why Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat on that bus!

There are 20 female and 20 male heroes in the book, and many of the poems will be read by their authors – me, Matt Goodfellow, Roger Stevens, John Dougherty, Sue Hardy-Dawson, Jan Dean, Cheryl Moskowitz, Chitra Soundar, Dom Conlon, Shauna Darling Robertson, Kate Wakeling, Laura Mucha, Myles McLeod, Suzy Levinson, and Penny Kent – all hosted by Gaby Morgan, Editorial Director at Macmillan Children’s Books

At the same time as the readings, you will also see the wonderful shape poems themselves!

Opportunities to ask the poets questions included, FREE!

In fact the whole event is free, get your tickets here:

A to Z Challenge 2019

AtoZ Challenge; K is for Kate Wakeling

Posted on April 12, 2019April 8, 2019 by Liz Brownlee

Kate Wakeling‘s poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies. Her debut collection of children’s poetry, Moon Juice, illustrated by Elīna Brasliņa (The Emma Press) was described by The Sunday Times as “clever, funny, inspiring”, and won the 2017 CLiPPA; it was also nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal. You can buy and read about Moon Juice here. There is a link to Kate’s website here.

Here is the lovely poem Kate sent for the poetry feast:

Jungle Cat

I lived for a while in a village in Bali. After many nights hearing strange noises coming from the ceiling, I found out I was sharing the house with a jungle cat. Jungle cats are larger than ordinary cats with long legs and an extra tuft of fur on each ear.

They told me
you live in my roof,
jungle cat.

Fire-eyed
trick-tailed
sleep thief.

You rumble the night
with your claw dance,
your tooth song.

I hear you yowl and pounce
and hiss and purr.

You scratch my sleep.

You creep across my cat naps.

Years later,
I find you still roaming my roof,
a wild thing
grinning
in the black night…

If you would like to blog hop to another A to Z Challenge, please follow this link.

Children’s Poets’ Climate Change blog: Be the Change

Liz’s Blog: Liz Brownlee Poet

Liz’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lizpoet

KidsPoets4Climate Twitter: https://twitter.com/poets4climate

Children’s Poetry Summit Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidspoetsummit

A to Z Blog Challenge 2018

W is for Kate Wakeling, Poet Writing for Children #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

Posted on April 4, 2018April 4, 2018 by Liz Brownlee

Photo Credit: Tom Weller

Kate Wakeling

Kate’s poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies. Her debut collection of children’s poetry, Moon Juice, illustrated by Elīna Brasliņa (The Emma Press) was described by The Sunday Times as “clever, funny, inspiring”, and won the 2017 CLiPPA (the only big poetry award specifically for children’s poetry); it was also nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal. You can buy and read about Moon Juice here. There is a link to Kate’s website here.

Here is one of Kate’s great poems:

Little-Known Facts

In secret, children can turn lightbulbs on and off with just their eyebrows.

When a child sneezes, the nearest adult briefly loses all reception on their mobile phone.

Left unwashed, children’s feet smell of perfectly-cooked spaghetti.

You can predict the next day’s weather on how tightly a child’s hair curls after a bath (extra curly = sunshine).

Behind children’s left ears grow tiny cacti which yield delicious juice every summer.

Children can see through brick walls of up to 15cm if the thing on the other side is definitely worth looking at.

When a child jumps up and down, fish in the nearest pond rise to the surface and blow a celebratory stream of bubbles.

Children can set up a reliable internet connection in any location using a pigeon and two drinking straws.

Children are able to smell a lie being told from 180 metres away.

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You can hear more about children’s poets and poetry, if you follow The Children’s Poetry Summit, @kidspoetsummit on Twitter