Wise Up! Wise Down!: Poems by John Agard and JonArno Lawson

About John AgardJonArno Lawson

John Agard is a poet performer and anthologist. He was born in Guyana and came to Britain in 1977. He has won many prizes including the Smarties Book Prize and the Queens Gold Medal and in 2021 was awarded the prestigious BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding contribution to children's literature. John is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and his work appears in an AQA anthology for GCSE English Literature. He is the author of the Carnegie-longlisted My Name Is Book and John Agard's Windrush Child. JonArno Lawson is an award-winning poet and writer who is the author of many books for children and adults including Over the Shop illustrated by Qin Leng and Footpath Flowers illustrated by Sydney Smith. He has won the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Children's Poetry four times and has also won the Governor General's Award for Illustrated Children's Books. He has taught children's poetry at Simmons College and lives in Toronto Canada with his family.Currently living in Japan Satoshi Kitamura has created over 20 of his own picture books as well as having illustrated many by prominent authors such as Hiawyn Oram John Agard and Colin McNaughton. His books have been translated into multiple languages and he has won awards including the Mother Goose Award Silver Award for the Smarties Prize and the National Art Library Illustrations Award.