The unbearable itch of chicken pox. The annoyance of sharing a Spotify account with your parents. The delight of smearing tomato sauce over everything you eat.
The bright rainbow lights of the roller derby. The glorious sticky sweetness of fairy floss. The rebellion of the fake tattoo you know your nan will hate. The satisfaction of turning your childhood Barbie into a punk-novelist.
The shock of accidentally smashing a neighbour’s window with a cricket ball. The shame of cheating on a test. The feeling of wearing your afro high and proud. The anxiety of reading text messages before school. The joy in Mum’s solo standing ovation on concert night. The blowfly in the school toilets that none of the boys can catch …
Maxine Beneba Clarke is back with 99 new poems for young people, following on from her multi-award-winning collection, It’s the Sound of the Thing. In sonnets, pantoums, narrative verse, free verse, blackout poems, tongue-twisters, limericks, found poems, concrete poems, rhyming couplets, haiku and more, Stuff I’m (Not) Sorry For makes magic from the ordinary.
This poetry book has every type of poem you can imagine from limericks, free verse, blackout, haiku and more. A perfect introduction to poetry as some poems are very short and others a bit longer. The very first poem in the book is “Five second rule”, and it had me laughing out loud.
I loved “I don’t know why it matters” which is about looking and dressing how you feel comfortable regardless of what other people think, and “With tomato sauce” brought back memories of my uncle who insisted on having tomato sauce on everything.
Even if you are not a fan of poetry I can guarantee that there will be at least one poem that you will enjoy, as Maxine Beneba Clarke has covered a huge variety of topics. There are poems to make you laugh, to think, to challenge you, as well as make you feel and cry. Some poems are more in depth than others and will suit upper primary students, but others will suit the middle primary years. This is sure to become a favourite in your library.