How To Be a Tiger

How To Be a Tiger is the first collection for younger children by George Szirtes - and it's a treat.

For a superb but Very Serious adult poet, Szirtes' book strikes just the right tone for kids. It is packed with poems that ring and sing and fling off the page.

Szirtes lures young readers into his rhythmical world by sticking firmly to their own likes and interests: there are poems about parks and rain and school and pasta. There are very silly poems about bow-legged meercats. There are a few fairy tale favourites. Some shape poems twist around the page, like the one about the wind - 'Whoosh! See / these words blow / across the page'. Finally, there are poems that seem very simple but contain big emotional truths.

Not only does this collection make you laugh, think and wince, but it will help young ones understand the different ways you can capture a moment forever with words.