Rapunzel is a Lettuce

Come on a family camping trip with an outdoor feast, or have an adventure, just you and your dog; be a giant of learning, find a message in a bottle, sail the storyteller sea or travel to the centre of the earth. These are poems to fire the imagination, to take you exploring and help you find your own special place.

Beginning with shorter, simpler poems and progressing gradually to more challenging verses, using many different forms, this is a poetry book that children can grow with, alongside teachers and carers – full of fantastic poems that are perfect for reading out loud and sharing in class as well as at home. Grouped into section headings Food, Families, School, Secret Messages, Special Places, Challenges, Plants, Journeys and Other Worlds, there really is something for everyone here.

Joseph Coelho's debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules won the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award 2015. His poetry collection Overheard in a Tower Block was shortlisted for the CLiPPA and longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His verse novel The Girl Who Became a Tree was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2021. Joseph was the Waterstones Children's Laureate 2022-24. The Boy Lost in the Maze won the Yoto Carnegie 2024 Medal for Writing. Joseph was awarded an OBE in 2024 and was nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2025. He lives just outside Edinburgh. 

Shirley Hottier was winner of the FAB illustration award in 2021. Shirley specialises in digital art, incorporating a rich palette of vivid colours and varied textures. She is illustrator of The Poetry World of John Agard (2025). Shirley lives in Edinburgh.