Making Friends with Poetry: the CLiPPA 2024
June 26, 2024
Read about poet Liz Berry's experiencing judging the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) 2024
I was lucky enough to meet poems when I was very young. One of my favourite books was an old paperback anthology called ‘A Swinging Rainbow’ (ed. Howard Sargeant) which contained everything from Dylan Thomas and TS Eliot to folk songs and playground rhymes. My mom would read to me until I could read myself and even now, we both know many of those poems by heart. I always think of that anthology – its joyful democracy and respect for the young listener or reader - when I’m choosing poetry books for my own sons or to share with other young people. The best children’s poetry books meet young people where they are and then carry them off to dreams and possibilities, sometimes to places or feelings that for years might remain a mystery, until one day you arrive there and think: ah, now I understand. Poems may be funny, clever, deep, complicated, full of the music of feeling, but a good book of poems can help make poetry your friend for life.
These thoughts were with me when I was reading the submissions for this year’s CLiPPA poetry award. I and my fellow judges – teacher and writer Darren Chetty, Billie Manning of the Poetry Society, poet Laura Mucha and teacher Imogen Maund – had a wealth of wonderful, immensely varied new poetry for children to consider and could easily have come up with a shortlist of ten, fifteen or twenty books. It made our hearts glad to see that poetry for young people is thriving: brilliant poems by diverse poets, thoughtfully presented to engage young readers.
Our judging meeting was long, enjoyable, and sometimes surprisingly intense as we discussed the collections, passionately championing the books we loved the best. Finally, we agreed on our shortlist, five brilliant and very different books. Each of the collections is unique and offers something special. Here are quiet poems, noisy poems, poems to make you laugh or dance, poems to help you think about your feelings, poems that keep you on the edge of your seat.
A Dinosaur at the Bus Stop by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon, Otter-Barry Books is a wonderful collection for the very young, poems full of music, fun and joy and that are perfect to share and perform. We loved the range of poets included in My Heart is a Poem, Little Tiger Press, and loved the way their poems help you think and talk about our feelings; ‘A pick and mix of treasures’, said one of my fellow judges. Balam and Lluvia’s House by Julio Serrano Echeverria, illustrated by Tolanda Mosquera, translated by Lawrence Schimel, The Emma Press is a gentle, playful, beautifully illustrated book about a little brother and sister living in Guatemala but who have the same dreams and adventures as children everywhere. And I Climbed And I Climbed by Stephen Lightbown, illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin, Troika Books, is about Cosmo, a young boy who becomes a wheelchair user after an accident. We found it fresh, moving and really gripping. Our final choice was The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, Otter-Barry Books. This is a wonderful novel in verse about Nate, navigating year 6, changing friendships, and a challenging home life. Again, we were all gripped and one of the judges confessed to reading it while walking along! We loved the way Matt uses the beautiful speech patterns of Manchester to capture the voice of year 6.
But the really special thing about the CLiPPA is its Shadowing Scheme. Teachers across the country share the shortlisted collections with their classes, children choose the poems that most speak to them, read them, learn them by heart and work up solo and group performances. I love the thought of children meeting poems like this, like I did, before any niggles or worries that poetry “might not be for us”. Poems are for everyone, because poetry is a way to share joy and sorrow, play with language, reach deep feelings, and develop empathy and confidence. That’s what’s brilliant about the CLiPPA: it understands that children are equals and collaborators in the poetry magic-making and invites them to make friends with poetry for life.
The CLiPPA 2024 shortlist in full:
A Dinosaur at the Bus Stop by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon, Otter-Barry Books
My Heart is a Poem, various poets, various illustrators, Little Tiger Press
Balam and Lluvia’s House by Julio Serrano Echeverria, illustrated by Tolanda Mosquera, translated by Lawrence Schimel, The Emma Press
The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, Otter-Barry Books
And I Climbed And I Climbed by Stephen Lightbown, illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin, Troika Books
The winner will be announced at the CLiPPA Poetry Show, live onstage at the National Theatre in London, Friday 12 July.
About the author
Liz Berry is an award-winning poet and author of the critically acclaimed collections Black Country (Chatto, 2014); The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018); The Dereliction (Hercules Editions, 2021) and, most recently, The Home Child (Chatto, 2023), a novel in verse. Liz’s work, described as “a sooty soaring hymn to her native West Midlands” (Guardian), celebrates the landscape, history and dialect of the region. Liz has received the Somerset Maugham Award, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and Forward Prizes. Her poem ‘Homing’, a love poem for the language of the Black Country, is part of the GCSE English syllabus.
