Squeak, Squawk, Roar!: Amazing Animal Poems

＂A tail, a beak? A roar? A squeak?＂ There’s so much to choose from in the animal world. Kate Williams’s collection is a zoological excursion populated by a colorful and characterful range of creatures. Some of the poems are lyrical, like the beautifully atmospheric red deer in A Vision on the Moor, or Fox Trot with its final lines: ＂Quick dash--red flash--vanish.＂ Many are comic, as with Rover, the globe-trotting sheep in Woolly But Cool, or the problematic dental patient in Can’t Snap Out of It who turns out to be a crocodile. Others acknowledge the fragility and vulnerability of some birds and animals like the thrush and the turtle. Stick insects, wombats, hippos, snakes, woodlice and many more find a place in this collection, as diverse in its moods and forms as the animal world it depicts.

Hannah Asen was born and brought up in London. She studied art and languages at Edinburgh University and then went to live and work in Berlin, Germany. In 2017 she returned to Scotland and now lives in the East Lothian countryside close to Edinburgh. Hannah is also illustrator of Matt Goodfellow’s poetry collection, Chicken on the Roof, published by Otter-Barry Books. Kate Williams’s poems have appeared in many anthologies and magazines but this is her first solo collection. She writes for several teaching magazines, including Practical Pre-School and Primary Teacher Update, and for the Guardian’s online teacher network.