The shortlist for the 2024 CLiPPA, CLPE Children’s Poetry Award, was announced on 8 May at a special live online event watched by excited classes of children across the country. With the announcement of the shortlist of course, the CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme opens too. It’s a thrill that the CLiPPA and the Shadowing are such a fixture on the school calendar, and what better way to enrich the curriculum and provide a quality arts experience than by exploring the best new poetry for children, enabling young people to find poems that speak to them, and to take that poem to their hearts. (On that note, see also Poetry By Heart, which has just announced the highest participation levels ever with 3,030 videoed poetry performances submitted).
So what are the collections that teachers and children will be exploring through the CLiPPA Shadowing this year? This is the 21st anniversary year of the CLiPPA, and children’s poetry is thriving. From record submissions, the judges, led by award-winning poet Liz Berry, have chosen a particularly exciting shortlist, featuring outstanding new collections from both a past winner and frequently shortlisted poet; an anthology exploring the world of feelings; poems describing the everyday lives of young siblings in Guatemala, translated from Spanish; and an emotionally intense collection drawing on the poet’s experience as a wheelchair user.
Here are five brilliant and very different books to enchant and transport young readers, listeners and dreamers’ says Liz Berry. ‘Each book on the shortlist is unique and offers something special: there are poems full of feeling, poems to make us laugh and dance, poems to help us see into the hearts and lives of others and feel changed.
The five books are (by suggested reading age):
A Dinosaur at the Bus Stop by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Eilidh Muldoon, Otter-Barry Books
This is a typically witty and captivating collection by a poet who won the CLiPPA with her collection Moon Juice and was shortlisted in 2022 with Cloud Soup. Using the simplest vocabulary, these musical poems celebrate imagination and the world’s variousness and encourage readers and listeners to do the same. The judges loved its ‘performability’ and the way the poet invites children to participate.
My Heart is a Poem, by various poets, various illustrators, Little Tiger Press
There are contemporary classics and brand-new poems in My Heart is a Poem which features poems by 20 different poets, including past CLiPPA winners John Agard, Valerie Bloom, Joseph Coelho and Karl Nova, as well as stars from the US and exciting new voices. The poems explore the world of feelings, from the depth of sadness to the heights of joy and everywhere in between. The judges loved the way it explores children’s emotional landscapes and described it as ‘a pick and mix full of treasures’.
Balam and Lluvia’s House by Julio Serrano Echeverria, illustrated by Tolanda Mosquera, translated by Lawrence Schimel, The Emma Press
Balam and Lluvia’s House is full of lively, playful but reflective poems, that invite the reader to run alongside Balam and his sister Lluvia as they go about their lives and through their house. The judges found the book fresh and distinctive, beautifully translated with an intensely poetic quality. It’s also a window into a different culture.
The Final Year by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, Otter-Barry Books
Matt Goodfellow has been shortlisted for the CLiPPA four times in the last three years: for Bright Bursts of Colour in 2021, for Being Me and Caterpillar Cake in 2022, and for Let’s Chase Stars Together in 2023. Now he has made the shortlist with his first verse novel, The Final Year. The story of Nate, as he navigates the final year of primary school, facing particular challenges at home, is moving and thought-provoking with real emotional depth. The judges loved its use of vernacular and poetic techniques, ‘it captures the voice of the classroom’.
And I Climbed And I Climbed by Stephen Lightbown, illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin, Troika Books
And I Climbed And I Climbed is Stephen Lightbown’s first poetry collection for children and draws on his experience as a wheelchair user after becoming paralysed following an accident. Written mostly in the voice of 8-year-old Cosmo who is unable to walk after falling from a tree, and illustrated by Shih-Yu Lin, the poems are angry, questioning, resigned, determined as he describes his feelings to the tree. The judges found it emotionally intense, authentic and a clear expression of difficult feelings, with lots that’s interesting and beautiful.
So now it’s over to schools and young people for the Shadowing. Remembering previous winning performances – ten-year-old Fatima’s rendition of Unbroken from Nicola Davies’ collection Choose Love; eleven-year-old Oluwajomiloju’s performance of Remember III from these are the words by Nikita Gill; Cerys, Jimmy-Dean, Tam, Scarlett, Joseph, India, Izore, Willow, Leo, Josiah, Alex and Frankie, from St Margaret Mary’s Primary in Manchester performing I Hope it Rains Today from Matt Goodfellow’s Let’s Chase Stars Together, and the understanding and control they brought to them; I can’t wait to see this year’s entries. To quote Liz Berry on the CLiPPA again, ‘Here, children are equals and collaborators in the poetry magic-making, invited to keep poems as friends for the rest of their lives.’ What could be better?
The winner of the 2024 CLiPPA will be announced at the National Theatre on Friday 12 July.
This year’s judging panel is Liz Berry, teacher and writer Darren Chetty, Billie Manning of the Poetry Society, Imogen Maund, teacher and UKLA representative, and poet Laura Mucha, who was shortlisted for the CLiPPA in 2022.
Andrea Reece
Andrea Reece is Managing Editor of Books for Keeps, reviews editor at Lovereading4Kids and administrator of the Branford Boase Award and Klaus Flugge Prize. She works with CLPE on the CLiPPA. She is currently managing PR and communications for Poetry By Heart.
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