Bossy Parrot: The Best Children's Poems from the Evening Chronicle Poetry Competition

The poems collected in this volume are the ``best entries'' submitted to a poetry competition for children sponsored by the largest newspaper in northeastern England, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. Each poem includes a biography, picture and a brief statement by the young writer. Many poems are class assignments (``I had to write a poem at school about an animal''), and predictably the poets vary widely in skill and maturity. While the competition was laudably designed to promote interest in poetry, and while many professional writers have testified to the importance of their own childhood publication in contests, it seems unfortunate that these young writers have been encouraged to speak of their ``work'' as if it were a lifetime achievement rather than a beginning. However, young readers may be encouraged by the variety of approaches, as they realize that there is no one way to write a poem. Greater care in editing might have prevented the plagiarizing of a poem from Hoban's Bread and Jam for Frances as the work of a six-year-old boy. All ages. (May)