Marvin Thompson, Peepal Tree Press, £9.99

Road Trip is a striking first collection by a poet with illuminating and entertaining stories, accomplished in both traditional and contemporary forms. As a poet of Jamaican heritage, born and raised in north London, living in south Wales, Marvin Thompson brings these passages of place and time together in fresh and revealing ways. The poet explores the underbelly of race and empire through stories of his father’s time in the British Army and writes with feeling of the post-industrial landscape of Wales and whether this is a place he can bring up his Mixed race children – though one should never assume that his poems are factually true.

Roger Robinson, Peepal Tree Press, £9.99

Afua Hirsch calls Robinson ‘the voice of our communal consciousness’ and his latest collection has been greatly lauded, winning both the TS Eliot Prize and the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize.

A Portable Paradise is a powerful exploration of grief and survival, depicting the racism, inequality and injustice of modern Britain in its many forms. These poems are powered by more than just anger: the tenderness of the portraits of Grenfell survivors, the joy as well as the pain he evokes in family life and the incisive subtlety of his imagery make Robinson a bright light in contemporary poetry.

Louisa Reid, Guppy Books, £9.99

A page-turning and immersive YA novel in verse, telling the story of Lily who takes up boxing in an attempt to fight back against bullying at school; a story of hope and resilience breaking through even the most difficult situations.

Lily turns sixteen with two very different sides to her life: school, where she is badly bullied, and home with her parents, warm and comforting but with its own difficulties. After a particularly terrible incident, Lily’s dad determines to give his daughter the tools to fight back. He introduces her to boxing, encouraging Lily to find her own worth.

A Guardian Children’s Book of the Year 2019

Dive into this book and be swept away on a journey around our green and blue planet, from the peak of the snowiest mountain top to the bottom of the deepest, bluest ocean. Meet the birds circling its skies,the beasts prowling its plains, and the people toiling in its fields, forests and cities… Explore all the worlds that make up ours, and hear the voices, past and present, that sing out from it. From haikus to sonnets, from rap to the Romantics, this joyous collection celebrates life in all corners of our beautiful planet. With new poems from Sabrina Mahfouz, Raymond Antrobus, Mona Arshi, Kate Tempest, Hollie McNish, Dean Atta and many more.