Books for Children
- Hey, Little Bug!
- Journey To The Centre Of My Brain
- GRRR! Dinos, Dragons and other Beastie Poems
- Greetings, Earthlings!
- How to Turn Your Teacher Purple!
- Orange Silver Sausage
- Time–Travelling Underpants
- Wild!
- Cars Stars Electric Guitars
- Around The World
Hey, Little Bug!
Poems for Little Creatures
Francis Lincoln, August 2011
A collection of poems and action rhymes for 3-6 year olds.
An excellent book, full of quiet, tender and fun poems for little ones. And not, thank goodness, twee and sentimental. There’s a good variety of poems with lots to join in with and learn by heart. Lovely illustrations, too. Overall, it’s a wonderful introduction for young children to the delights of poetry. Buy one for the classroom, one for the school library and one for every child you know under the age of seven.
Poetryzone website
This is a lovely introduction to poetry for young children .. What shines through is a real understanding of the target audience and the things that will appeal to them. A great book for the classroom/ school library.
Parents in Touch
A charming and tender collection written for the 'little bugs' that constantly absorb sights and sounds around them. As a performer of poetry, James Carter writes with the exuberance he would give when delivering poems in person, and each one contains this lively enthusiasm both on and off the page. It is clear the poems mean a lot to Carter, and this is easily transferred to the reader. Children will find it absorbing and entertaining and adults will be reading with smiles written on their faces.
Love Reading - - reviewed by their poetry expert Liam Parkin
Good poetry books for younger children are thin on the ground. Either they come in big glossy coffee–table type tomes – the sort that granny might buy at Christmas (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or they are regurgitations of poems written fifty or more years ago. And however great you might think Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems are – they are very much of their time. How wonderful, then, to read James Carter’s fantastic book. Like RLS it’s full of gentle, daft, sensitive, funny, sad and serious poems. But, and here’s the really good part, it’s not twee or sentimental. The poems are modern – of these times. Nice illustrations too.
★★★★★
Amazon website
Journey To The Centre Of My Brain
by James Carter Macmillan Children’s Books, January 2012
Stars, woolly mammoths, tigers, bugs and books .sneak a peek into James Carter’s brain in this brilliant collection of poems. Something for everyone aged 7-777 years old! Macmillan Children's Books - January 2012.
This is a fantastic collection of poems for children and grown-ups of all ages. Lively. Thoughtful. Energetic. Delightful. James Carter is so good at making words sing and play, tell stories, transform themselves into wolves, the moon, guitars - in short, he makes words perform! The book is full of important information too. Find out what stars are, why you shouldn’t do a jigsaw in space and what dinosaurs are made of. James asks what you would do if you were Boss of the Universe? That’s easy! I would make everybody buy a copy of this book. It’s funky!
Poertryzone Website
GRRR! Dinos, Dragons and other Beastie Poems
by James Carter
Macmillan Children’s Books, January 2012
Grrrreatings readers! Want to know how to how to get a woolly mammoth to sleep? Want to know how to steal a dragon's egg? Want to know what vexes T Rexes and what dinos are made of? Want to know a good name for a dragon? Want to get headbanging at the dino disco? Well, you'd better tread carefully as you step into this book, it's brrrimful of beasties grrrreat and grrrruesome, and what's more, plenty of...GRRR!
Greetings, Earthlings!
Space Poems by James Carter and Brian Moses
Macmillan Children’s Books, July 2009
Sponsored by the Science Museum, this is a brand new collection of sparkling space poems from two of the UK’s top children’s poets – with stars, planets, space travel, moonwalkers, UFOs and aliens aplenty. Cosmic or what?
The book is a great mix of funny, exciting and touching poems that will delight kids and parents alike.
Family Interest magazine
How to Turn Your Teacher Purple! and Other Sizzling Science Poems
Compiled by James Carter
A&C Black, February 2011
A collection of sizzling science poems that will make you gasp, groan and giggle. With quarks and quasars, dynamos and dinosaurs, take a poetic look at science from the big bang to the end of the universe! Q: What's great, green, slimey, stripey, brainy, zany, curious, cosmic and utterly mind-blowing? A: The poems in this book!
★★★★★
Amazon website
Orange Silver Sausage
Poems without rhymes from Zephaniah to Agard
Compiled by James Carter and Graham Denton
Walker Books, October 2009
Shortlisted for the 2010 CLPE Poetry Award
Orange Silver Sausage is a wholly unique anthology, lovingly compiled by James Carter and Graham Denton. It contains over 50 non–rhyming poems of every shape and size, in a wide array of voices from many of the UK’s top poets – including Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Rosen, Brian Patten, Jackie Kay, Grace Nichols, and Roger McGough, and of course, Benjamin Zephaniah and John Agard. OSS even contains a manual on how to write and perform your own non–rhyming poems!
There is a lack of quality poetry books available currently, and in the absence of good single–poet titles, this much needed anthology of non–rhyming poetry does exactly what it sets out to do. Some of the best children’s poets are represented and the authors do not stick only to the well known poems. It as a great mix of the little–known and the familiar, and provides serious insights alongside entertaining and humorous pieces. In addition, notes are provided to encourage children to try their hand at writing their own poems. Every teacher and librarian will want this – it is a classic for the whole of KS2 and beyond.
The Bookseller
Time–Travelling Underpants
Macmillan Children’s Books, August 2007
Audio CD, September 2007
A collection of poems for 7–777 year olds – loosely based on the theme of time.
A beautiful collection. Crafting genuinely effective poems for this age group is not easy and only a few poets have the skill. James Carter manages to find depth in this well–crafted collection. Macmillan have done much to promote poetry in schools and this collection is a genuine bonus to their list.
Pie Corbett
Top 10 Best Books of The Year in Junior Education
A really starry collection of poems serious, amazing and hilarious.
Fiona Waters
Carousel Magazine
Also available to download from iTunes
Wild!
Rhymes That Roar
Wildlife poems chosen by James Carter and Graham Denton
Macmillan Children’s Books, February 2009
Welcome to Wild!
Ever been called a ‘Wild Thing’? Or ever fancied escaping from it all, heading for the woods and living on nuts and berries? Well, now you don’t have to. We’ve brought the wild to your very door! In this anthology you’ll find poems, and a few facts too, which will hopefully give you a flavour of the ‘wild’ and some of the many weird and wonderful beasts that live within it.
Cars Stars Electric Guitars
Walker Books, October 2002
Reprinted 2007
A collection of children’s poems in a variety of forms, styles and voices for 7–11 year olds.
This book is recommended by Young Book Trust (London) as part of their Children’s Poetry Bookshelf Scheme and was promoted to Primary schools across the UK for National Poetry Day in October 2002.
James Carter is an exciting new voice, imaginative and innovative. Children will love these poems.
Jacqueline Wilson
A great variety of funny and thoughtful poems presentated in a lively and entertaining manner, packed with humour and originality. A definite buy for the classroom. Will children like it? Yes, very much.
Poetryzone website
James Carter is an exciting new voice with an original view on the world...His observations make you smile, nod in agreement or laugh out loud...It will appeal to children and adults from 7 upwards – buy lots and enjoy.
School Librarian
Carter is a name to watch and writes with warmth, gentle humour and some charm.
Morag Styles
TES
A superb collection of poems...a fine addition to any KS2 poetry collection, but kids from both KS1 and KS3 will also love many of these poems, such is their quality and the breadth of their appeal.
Literacy & Learning
James Carter’s first collection shows a quick–witted, energised poet working his way through a host of fresh approaches to verse...This slim book fairly fizzes with ideas...A cheerful collection that Key Stage 2 pupils will enjoy exploring.
Wes Magee
Junior Education
The poems are really exciting...would recommend this book to reluctant or first time poetry readers of any age, there’s something for everyone!
Megan Whiteman (age 13)
Familyrapp website
Around The World
Illustrated by Anne Wilson
Harper Collins Big Cat Series, September 2007
A reading scheme book from the innovative Harper Collins scheme – a single poem early reader text.
★★★★★
Amazon website