Ready for Spaghetti: Funny Poems for Funny Kids

WINNER OF THE CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL AWARD FOR POETRY

I’m ready for spaghetti
Will you getti the spaghetti?
Don’t say, “Not yetti spaghetti!”
‘cos I’m all setti for spaghetti.

A brilliant new book from former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen and much-loved artist Polly Dunbar... Fizzing with rhythm, energy and laughter, the 30 poems in Ready for Spaghetti delight in the details of children's daily routines.

"Up, up, uppity-up!", the first poem announces, while the artwork shows a child leaping out of bed, ready to begin their morning; "Hush and a hush, soft and low", chants the final poem, as children snuggle under their blankets after their day's adventures.

Full of affectionate observations of young children, which are beautifully continued in Polly Dunbar's warm-hearted pictures, Michael Rosen's poems are ideal for reading aloud with toddlers ... and many grown-ups will soon know them by heart!

Winner of Childrens Literature Festival Book Awards 2023 (UK) Short-listed for Books for Topics Book of the Year 2022 (UK) Long-listed for Spark! School Book Award 2022 (UK)

Ready for Spaghetti: Funny Poems for Funny Kids […] is a fabulous collection of new rhymes for young readers. Michael Rosen has a special understanding of how little ones think and he weaves his wordsmith magic to full effect here. Each short poem captures a moment from childhood from the joy of waking up – "Up up uppity-up!” to being “all setti for spaghetti” at dinnertime. Polly Dunbar’s accompanying artwork perfectly captures the chaos and delights of childhood. -- Emma Dunn, Hanna Sycamore The Scotsman
"This is a great book for a parent to share with a very young child and for teachers in the early years to read to their class. Children will quickly know their favourites and in no time will be reading along with the adult." -- Jane Carter Books For Topics
Michael Rosen and Polly Dunbar visit every corner of the small child’s sensory-world – the bathroom, the swings in the park, boiled eggs for breakfast, clouds, sucking up spaghetti, hugging teddy, baking cakes, leaping about, messing in the paddling pool, the sandpit – and weave around them eccentric rhyming spells and pictures which cannot fail to enchant and stimulate children aged three to seven. The School Reading List
Michael Rosen’s virtuosic text tracks the joy and wonder of being a toddler, a sense of freedom and excitement captured by Polly Dunbar’s soft yet bubbling illustrations. Rosen’s poems are meant to be read aloud, sung, shouted and giggled over. An absolute riot. The best illustrated poetry for young bookworms, Irish Independent
Featured in Pen & Inc Autumn/Winter 2022 listings, highlighting the best in diversity and inclusion in children's books. Pen & Inc

Michael Rosen is one of the most popular authors of stories and poems for children. His bestselling titles published by Walker Books include We're Going on a Bear Hunt, A Great Big Cuddle, Little Rabbit Foo Foo, Michael Rosen’s Sad Book, This Is Our House, Tiny Little Fly, Dear Mother Goose and its sequel Dear Fairy Godmother. Michael received the Eleanor Farjeon Award for distinguished services to children’s literature in 1997, and was the Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009. He is a distinguished critic and academic, co-directing an MA in Children’s Literature at Birkbeck College. He is often called upon to talk about children’s literature and his poetry readings are adored by children and adults. He also presents radio programmes for the BBC.

Polly Dunbar is an award-winning author-illustrator whose books for Walker include Red, Red, Red, A Lion Is a Lion and the bestselling Penguin. She has also illustrated books by novelists David Almond and Michael Morpurgo, poet Raymond Antrobus and her mother, picture-book author Joyce Dunbar. Follow her on Twitter: @PollyDunbar

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