How can laughter be more powerful than a sword? Why do days have names but not weeks? And do pigeons ever get a craving for cake? Two friends, esteemed poets John Agard and JonArno Lawson, take us on an inspiring, hilarious, and wondrous journey through poetry, asking questions and attempting answers as they discover that life really is forever and ever an adventure. Comprising more than seventy-five poems written in a call-and-response format, with each poem having a reply from the other poet, Wise Up! Wise Down! is sure to inspire all readers to find humor in every day.

Creature-of-No-Words lives a happy life on his own, but one day he gets a feeling like the chill touch of ice, and nothing can lift his sadness.

Just then Creature-of-Words arrives and senses his despair. How can she help him communicate and be happy once more? This is a powerful picture book about communication and friendship, from an award-winning duo.

With one last hug, Windrush child says goodbye to his grandmother and the shores of his Caribbean home before embarking on an adventure across the ocean--under a sky full of promise--to an unknown horizon. With sensitivity and tender lyricism, world-renowned and multi-award-winning poet John Agard narrates the epic story of a child's voyage to England aboard Empire Windrush. Joyous illustrations by debut artist Sophie Bass richly evoke the changing landscapes and the uncertainty, courage, and hope of those who step into history--and travel far in search of home.

The father of performance poetry, John Agard, brings you a collection of riotously funny poems. Follow that Word is a celebration of imagination and demonstrates the true diversity of language.

A dazzling collection of over sixty poems, Follow That Word delivers John Agard's musings on people and places from the modern and historical world, this wonderful collection that can be rediscovered over and over again. With gorgeous black-and-white illustrations from Momoko Abe, Follow That Word takes you on a thought-provoking journey into the wonderful world of words, and this collection belongs on every bookshelf.

'It's been around from Creation dawn,
And it only takes two to catch on,
Try it people, and you'll soon see,
This is a dance that can set you free,
It's called the dance of diversity.'

Reviews for Half-caste, and Other Poems:
'Rollicking Caribbean-flavored rhythms combined with serious matters such as racism define poet extraordinaire, Agard.' - Voya

A performance poet, Agard uses his rhyme, repetition and refrains that make his work sing...Skilful use of humour to get his serious points across. - The Book Horn Inc

In the title story, Inspector Dreadlock Holmes and his sidekick Rudeyard Fly are sent for by the Criminal Investigation Department of Middleham-by-Sea - a little town known for tea shops, pet shops, florist shops. Keen to kickstart their diversity policy, the Department sends for two black law enforcers who both think this an opportunity too good to miss: a chance to prove their cross-cultural mettle and elucidate the death of Lord Montagu, a controversial political figure possibly killed by a deadly vegetable.

In other stories, an Anansi spider stows away on the Windrush, cod and chips are usurped by chicken tikka marsala, and a white landscape gardener who admires Capability Brown has a mixed race child who is dispossessed by voices from history, including that of Martin Luther King.

Surreal and playful, John Agard's stories also reveal hidden truths that subtly change our view of how we are and where we come from.

A rip-roaring poem about protecting our planet, told through the eyes of Coyote the trickster.

Excitement spreads like wildfire through the jungle. Earth-goddesses are planning a conference! From Australia to Antarctica, Amazon to Africa, goddesses will debate the burning environmental issues of our times . . . and bushy-tailed, smooth-talking Coyote wants in on the action. Can this infamous trickster come up with a plan to infiltrate the conference and leave a lasting legacy for our planet?

Quirky and inventive. The writing is beautiful. The illustrations truly shine and will be enjoyed by all. An aesthetically pleasing and stimulating work of art--ALA Booklist

Agard's words and Grobler's illustrations harmoniously deliver an engaging and timely tale. Humans have indeed become blind to the fragile beauty of the Earth. This story, packed full of playful characters that fly and dance around the page as creation myths are told, asks young readers to take a different view and to love the world around them--Andy Robert Davies, children's illustrator

The more I read this book the more I wanted to read it again because every time I looked at it again I noticed a new drawing or found something to use in my own writing. This is an important story to tell because lots of bad things are happening to our world currently and it reminds us of what we need to do to help our planet--Lottie Kid Reviewer, Books Up North

John Agard's ninth Bloodaxe collection, Border Zone, explores a far-reaching canvas of British/Caribbean transatlantic connections, sweeping across centuries and continents.

His border territory ranges from Love in a Sceptred Isle, a novella-like narrative poem of a romance between Barbados-born photographer, Victor, and Welsh librarian, Rhiannon, told with lyrical tenderness and thought-provoking wit, to Casanova the Philosopher, a sequence of sonnets in the voice of the legendary Venetian philosophically observing 18th-century English ways in a tongue-in-cheek memoir and travelogue.

John Agard has been broadening the canvas of British poetry for the past 40 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. This is a diverse collection where the thought-provokingly mischievous, bawdy and elegaic rub shoulders alongside the sequence The Plants Are Staying Put - with the poet turning overnight lockdown gardener - as well as calypso poems, where the poet puts on his hat as 'poetsonian', a term he coined in the 80s in tribute to the inventive lyrics of the calypsonian.

Did you know that a book can take you anywhere? You only need to turn the pages of a story, and in a moment, you and your book could be crossing the waves in a pirate ship... or diving with mermaids... or even snoozing with a dragon.

Books really DO make good pets Why don't you peep inside this one, and take your mind on an adventure?

This delightful original picture book poem is the perfect gift for anyone who delights in the magic of a good book. Agard's evocative, lyrical style is perfectly complemented with illustrations by Momoko Abe, whose colourful visuals add character, transporting the reader into an enchanting world of imagination.

A wonderful anthology of poetry by award winning poets John Agard and Grace Nichols, brought to life with beautiful illustrations by Satoshi Kitamura.

- Purple/Band 8 books offer developing readers literary language, with some challenging vocabulary.

- Text type: A poetry book.

- An illustration on pages 22 and 23 encourages children to recap the poems they have read in the anthology.

- Curriculum links: Art and Design: Portraying relationships; Music: Play it again - exploring rhythmic patterns; Citizenship: Living in a diverse world