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Joseph Coelho's Courage Out Loud: 25 Poems of Power is a collection of poems about being brave for 7 year olds, and every one of them is made to be said out loud.
The poems come with little notes from Joseph Coelho. Sometimes it's a tip for performing it (grab a prop, pull faces, split the lines between friends). Sometimes it's an idea for writing a poem of your own. It feels like having a very friendly poet sitting next to you.
The poems cover all sorts of brave. There's climbing the ladder to the top diving board, with "the wolves in my tummy" howling all the way up. There's standing up to read your story to the class, when the classroom turns into a swamp and a classmate looms like a giant.
The one about saying no is a real gem. The child in it has "yeses" in their pockets and "yeses" in their shoes. They say yes to everything, even when it makes them feel bad. Then they learn to pick and choose. "No thanks" to a hug, "yes please" to a fist bump. What a lovely thing for a small child to hear!
Some are about quieter kinds of courage. Saying sorry when your throat feels like a mountain. Having a good cry, because there's courage in every tear. Trying again after you fall down, and again, and again.
Others are just plain funny. Mabel doesn't like rollercoasters, so she picks the gentle-looking Party House ride. Then the whole room starts to tip and spin, and it's Mum and Uncle who want to get off!
The poems play with lots of different shapes too, from rhymes and limericks to some cleverer old forms with repeating lines. A few of those will suit an older child better. For the youngest, this is one to share with a grown-up, reading a poem or two at bedtime.
It's worth knowing the limericks are darkly silly. One girl gets flushed down the loo and another is struck by lightning and "sent six-feet under". Most kids will think that's hilarious (but you know your own reader).
If you've got a worrier at home, or a child who goes quiet when everyone's looking, there's a lot of gentle encouragement in here.
There's more from the same poet in Poems Aloud. It has tongue twisters to race through, poems to whisper in a friend's ear and one about a crocodile where the audience joins in.
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