In the Land of the Giants: Selected Children’s Poems (Children’s Poetry Library) - Softcover

'No primary-school teacher who reads poetry to children should be without George Szirtes’s The Red-All-Over Riddle Book.

In the Land of Giants is a wonderful book. Buy a copy and see for yourselves. Or just browse through one and then see if you can resist buying it. George’s reading at the launch had both children and adults spellbound. Those of you who know him, or have heard him at readings, or even just met him briefly will be unable to read these poems without hearing his distinctive and mesmerizing voice somewhere deep inside your ear.

The subject matter ranges widely; some are fantastic for younger children, some are probably more to be appreciated by parents. There is also a selection of translations from the Hungarian, by Ottó Orbán and Zoltán Zelk, among others. I loved 'The Lost Sock Mystery', which references MI5 and which by a happy coincidence I first read online while rolling socks and watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Alec Guinness.

To my mind, he is the very best of poets for children (and adults, for that matter). Never showy or superior, equally comfortable with or without rhyme, and showing us the mystery, wonder and humour of the world with clarity and elegance. He observes and transforms, beginning with the everyday and ending somewhere else, inviting us into the poems, showing us what we thought we knew and revealing that we knew more than we thought. In this collection, there are over sixty poems to enjoy and share. Don’t miss it.

The collection begins with poems that play with the English language and ends with poems translated from the Hungarian. The centrepiece is a series of poems focusing on a variety of characters, several of whom feel small and insignificant in a big world – the land of the giants.

This engaging collection of poems and verses is best fitted for the younger end of the 8 to 12 age-group. The best of them take a quirky, sidelong, witty look at the worlds, expanding on a child’s observation, for example the noises that a fridge makes as it digests our offerings.

This is a very dangerous book: it plays with words, with fire, with water, with animals – with anything and everything: even refrigerators and ice-creams. After I read it, the world wasn't the same again. If you read it, you won't be either.