A Ticket to Kalamazoo!

A fantastic, full-colour, read-aloud poetry collection for young children

All aboard for Kalamazoo! One ticket will let you… ride on an elephant, stay in a bug hotel, travel by train boat and plane, mingle with bears and minibeasts – and even meet an alien! All this and more, in 19 zippy poems to read aloud.

This is a fantastic and eagerly awaited poetry collection for young children, from the author of bestselling Zim Zam Zoom! which was shortlisted for the CLiPPA Award and longlisted for the UKLA Award.

"An absolutely delightful collection of poems for the younger reader. It's beautifully designed and illustrated... The pages are bright and colourful and the pictures are charming... the fantastical subjects of each one will make children smile and laugh and join in with repeated refrains. 

This book is a clear winner for any infant library or classroom bookshelf. As part of a unit on poetry, this book will be returned to again and again for inspiration, and for any time a quick five minute poetry dip-in is needed."

"Bursting with energy and exuberance, ‘A Ticket to Kalamazoo!’ is the perfect collection for encouraging and developing a love of poetry. These are poems which are crying out to be shared, performed and discussed time and time again... Full of colour and fun, each poem is brilliantly illustrated by Neal Layton, making the book instantly appealing.

Equally excellent for home or school, this is a must-have collection for inspiring poets of the future and kindling a life-long love of words and their playfulness."

"Poems are always best read aloud, and James Carter has provided the reader and audience with an absolute zippy treat of 19 super poems. Neal Layton’s super illustrations provide another layer of meaning to each poem. 

This is a poetic journey awaiting all to join. It is time to purchase your ticket to Kalamazoo – a destination of literary delight that you will not want to miss. This poetry book is destined to become a classroom classic."

"Something for the young ones...Children will want to join in as they read about a bear with honey and fish in its tum, yum; a host of busy bugs; riding on an elephant; and Goldilocks’ takeaway. The bold colourful and witty illustrations make this a lovely picture book."

"Appealing illustrations wrap around the poems on highly colourful pages making this a very attractive book. The strap line for this lively poetry collection is ‘Zippy Poems to Read Out Loud’ and they certainly invite you to do just that. This collection would be fun to share at home and even better in school with an enthusiastic chorus of voices. The simple structures and ideas are also perfectly pitched to inspire children to create their own poems."

"Featuring 19 upbeat poems, A Ticket to Kalamazoo is a delightful picture book of fun rhymes."

James Carter is an award-winning children’s poet, non-fiction writer and musician. An ambassador for National Poetry Day, he travels all over the UK and abroad with his melodica to give lively, action-packed poetry/music performances, workshops and INSET days. His latest verse non-fiction series for younger readers (Little Tiger Press) is translated into over 8 languages. A former lecturer in Creative Writing/Children’s Literature at Reading University, in the last 19 years James has visited over 1300 Primary/Prep schools in the UK and abroad and has performed at festivals including Cheltenham, Hay and Edinburgh. He is the author of CLiPPA-shortlisted collection Zim Zam Zoom (with Nicola Colton), and, for older children, Weird, Wild and Wonderful: the poetry world of James Carter (with Neal Layton). He lives in Oxfordshire. . He lives in Oxfordshire.

Neal Layton is an author and illustrator whose images are prized for their spontaneity and inventiveness. His picture books include The Tree, The Story of Stars, and Oscar and Arabella. Born in Chichester, he was going to be a scientist but instead studied Graphic Design, gaining a BA at Newcastle and an MA in Illustration at Central St Martins. He lives with his family in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

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