Debjani Chatterjee

A slim collection of short stories by some British Asian writers and a lady who was very talented but sadly died prematurely a few years ago. Very varied, ranging from those based on a Guyanese childhood - anyone interested in these should check out the author's full collection Once a Guyanese Child - to a schoolgirl tasked by her teacher to write authentically about British Asian culture - to a boy who has a delusion that a giant spider at the centre of the Earth is about to break out. One or two have inconclusive endings but maybe that is by design. On balance a 3-star rating.… (mehr)

I enjoyed this book because of the illustrations, the writing style, and the language. The illustrations in the book were really well done and were helpful as they provided a glance as to how the game or sport being described was played. Everyone might not know how certain sports or games are played, so having the picture how it can be very helpful and informative. For example, not all children might know how to play cricket or what it looks like, so by having the picture of the children playing it and the equipment used, such as the bat and ball, children can have a better understanding of what the poem is talking about. In addition, I liked how this book was put together and the different writing styles used. Each poem had its own unique writing style as they all were from different authors from around the world. It was neat how all the poems weren't the same and had a certain flow to it that the others might not have. For example, some of the poems rhymed like "The World's Fastest Bicycle" as it used word pairs such as "seen and sheen, faster and blaster, and brake and make". Some of the poems flowed better than others, but all of them were fun and easy to read. In addition, the language used in the poems helped them to flow as the words would go together or sound nice when read. Plus, the language was very descriptive in most of the poems which lead to better and more colorful explanations or stories of people playing the sports and games. For example, the poem "Shot Put" talks about "the cold curve on the pulse in my neck", which is a very rich description of someone throwing a shot put. This adds to the poem and gives a good example of what it is like to play that sport or game and some of the emotions involved. The overall message of this book of poems is that there are a variety of different sports and games played around the world and that we should be accepting of all of them, and give them a try if possible.… (mehr)