The Dog Ate My Homework by Aaron James is a collection of short poems that will capture your imagination. Filled with fun stories that make you think, laugh and tell your friends. Do you remember your first day at school? Or when you tried to convince your teacher you actually done your homework? Or the excitement you felt when you bought your new pair of trainers? In The Dog Ate My Homework you will get a chance to read all these stories and many more!
Review
I would like to thank the Clink Street Publishing, the author Aaron James and blog tour organiser Rachel Gilby for the ARC of The Dog Ate My Homework in return for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this group of poems and felt it would be a fun introduction for young children and their parents not familiar with reading poetry. Aaron James poems are perfect for this group, in that they are about subjects they can easily engage with, The Dog Ate My Homework as well as the fun of choosing a new pair of trainers. What I liked most about them, was that the writer did not use words a young reader might not know and be forced to look up, keeping the language simple and allowing the poems to flow. There is nothing wrong with using more complicated language in a poem, as reading skill progresses, but having read poems to young children and having to stop to explain a word, ruins the magic of the poem and how well they engage with it. So I was happy that the writer used fun and engaging language they will understand and will make them laugh at the adventures told within the poems.
It is often hard for poets to use language without the temptation to insert a word to simply make the poem rhyme, but sometimes this leads to challenging language combinations that put many people off reading poetry. I myself haven’t always enjoyed poetry, often finding it hard to engage with and absorb, so I now aim to read a poem a day as an adult and this has both changed my relationship with poetry and my enjoyment of it. I would love younger readers to do the same, so they don’t grow up nervous of poetry, feeling it’s a medium that is inaccessible to them as readers and this lovely little book of poems will help nurture a love of poetry.
If you’re looking for a set of poems for younger readers then this would be an excellent choice.
The Dog Ate My Homework and Other Poems for Children can be purchased from now Amazon.
A little bit about the author.
Born and raised in Tottenham, North London and today living in Bromley, South London with his wife, Aaron James works as a poet and spoken word artist. The Dog Ate My Homework is his first children’s poetry book.
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