The original Faber Book of Children's Verse, first published in 1953, was a landmark anthology. Almost half a century later it is possible to take a different view on some of the classic poets it contained and to represent their work in the context of more recent writing - whether this be taken from the wealth of new poems written for children, or from work which, while written for adult readers, can still appeal to a child's sensibility. Matthew Sweeney has done this in a ground-breaking and exemplary way. The poems are by authors from many different backgrounds, cultures and geographies, but they share a quality that gives the book an imaginative integrity - a spirit of exploration, undertaken with humour and energy, where the boundaries are limitless. It is a helter-skelter of a ride, full of unexpected twists and turns, to which readers of any age will want to return, again and again.
