A Whale of a Time - (Poetry Collections) by Lou Peacock (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Winner of Good Housekeeping's 2023 Best Kids' Book Awards

Featured in The New York Times' Holiday Gift Books for Children

Named One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best Children's Books of 2023

Named a Most Anticipated Kids' Book by Barnes & Noble

A wonderful gift for all ages, this beautiful, rib-tickling anthology is guaranteed to put a smile on your face! Whether it's a poem about socks or spaniels, eggs or elephants, this bright and brilliant collection will bring you cheer and laughter every day. Perfect for reading aloud and sharing even more side-splitting hilarity with family and friends.

The spectacular range of poems for children includes work by John Agard, Maya Angelou, Brian Bilston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Wendy Cope, Nikki Grimes, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Linda Sue Park, Michael Rosen, Judith Viorst, William Carlos Williams, Jane Yolen, Benjamin Zephaniah, and many more!

With a ribbon marker and poems about everything from animals, holidays, and food, to friendship, family, and feelings, A Whale of a Time is the perfect gift for any occasion.

"Oh, the lucky child who hears a poem a day read aloud from this big book of joy."
--The New York Times

Review Quotes

Oh, the lucky child who hears a poem a day read aloud from this big book of joy. The idea is simple: a collection of 366 funny verses (mostly rhyming, all short) for every day from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 in a leap year. The topics are relatable: socks, secrets, brothers, bath time, worms, holidays, annoying parents. The poets include plenty of expected names (Roald Dahl, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Jack Prelutsky) and many less well-known talents, like the British dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who gets the prized Dec. 25 slot with a poem about turkeys ("Turkeys jus wanna play reggae/Turkeys jus wanna hip-hop/Can yu imagine a nice young turkey saying, /'I cannot wait for de chop'?"). The visual production is outstanding, too, with bold, playful mixed-media illustrations that match the lighthearted loopiness.--Catherine Hong, New York Times Book Review

PreS-Gr 5-A balanced collection of poetry punctuated with vibrant mixed media art, this oversized selection reflects seasonal changes, as each section is collected by month for daily readings. Layouts showcase diverse, bold illustrations created by paint, pens, crayons, and digital. Hunt's artistic interpretation of poetry, paired with Peacock's selections per spread, offer an imaginative and brilliant twist to the limericks, haiku, free verse, odes, and other rhymes. A deliciously disgusting image of a cheerful lad slurping worms while surrounded by birds on wet grass takes center stage between "The Worm" on April 3rd and "Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me" on April 4th. Children will grin, wondering if this is the boy who pretended to eat the worm, or who actually does eat them! The poems surround the space, with alliteration, onomatopoeia, and rhythm bouncing beautifully off the tongue. Jack Prelutsky, Valerie Bloom, John Agard, Spike Milligan, Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, Joshua Seigal, and Nikki Giovanni appear multiple times, among other authors, and while many of the poems are humorous, several are more introspective. Minor graphic design issues to fit some poems are distracting but rare. A few of the poems are quite advanced (Maya Angelou's "On Aging" and Jenny Joseph's "Warning") and would be best for older readers, while others are solidly for preschoolers. Back matter includes indices of authors, poems, and first lines.
VERDICT A poetic gem for oversized collections that circulate well. Purchase this title to share daily poems at the reference desk or other display areas.

--Rachel Zuffa, School Library Journal

Short poems for each day of the calendar year, including February 29.
Aside from the decision to include some poems in dialect, the pseudonymous editor sticks to standard English in this hefty, lighthearted collection, including for the rare translations. Her 366 selections offer readers encounters with Jellicle Cats and Jumblies, limericks and nursery rhyme spinoffs ("Mary had a little lamb, / A lobster and some prunes"), and renowned versifiers from Jack Prelutsky ("It's raining pigs and noodles, / it's pouring frogs and hats") to the ever-popular Anonymous, who checks in with "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and a five-verse version of "Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me." Except for groups of Thanksgiving- and Christmas- themed entries in November and December, respectively, holidays go unacknowledged; instead, the entries have been gathered around dozens of quotidian topics from dogs and elephants to socks, relatives, and sneezes. While some poets make multiple contributions, most are limited to one or two, so there are plenty of lesser-known but rising lights among the diverse if mostly British and American cast of modern contributors, joined by more familiar writers such as Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou, Linda Sue Park, and Nikki Giovanni. Hunt's cartoon illustrations, which feature a large and diverse cast of children in lively poses, add bright notes of energy and action to the spacious page layouts.

Readable and unusually capacious. (poet, title, and first line indexes) (Poetry. 6-10)

--Kirkus Reviews

"With its vibrant and joyful illustrations that perfectly accompany the poems, it is a perfect gift for young readers. Teachers and librarians will find the poems to be perfectly placed read-alouds to share throughout the year. "--NCTE Excellence in Children's Poetry Award Committee, School Library Journal

Readable and unusually capacious... [Matt] Hunt's cartoon illustrations, which feature a large and diverse cast of children in lively poses, add bright notes of energy and action to the spacious page layouts.
--Kirkus Reviews

A balanced collection of poetry punctuated with vibrant mixed media art, this oversized selection reflects seasonal changes, as each section is collected by month for daily readings. Layouts showcase diverse, bold illustrations created by paint, pens, crayons, and digital. Hunt's artistic interpretation of poetry, paired with Peacock's selections per spread, offer an imaginative and brilliant twist to the limericks, haiku, free verse, odes, and other rhymes.--Rachel Zuffa, School Library Journal

About the Author

Lou Peacock is lucky enough to have one of the best jobs in the world: "Publishing Director of Picture Books" at Nosy Crow. She has a degree in English Literature from Oxford University, and over twenty years' experience in children's publishing. She started her editorial career working on novelty books, but has focused on picture books and poetry for the last 15 years. She often puts her author hat on to write picture books for Nosy Crow and has a notebook full of scribbled ideas.
Matt Hunt was born in Redditch in Worcestershire, England, in 1988. Starting out as a fine artist, he graduated from the Birmingham School of Art, and from these roots, developed a love for children's illustration. Matt works in mixed media, utilizing paint, pens, crayons, and digital methods. He's influenced by old movies, classic illustration, cartoons, and books. He lives with his wife Hayley and two cats.