Category: Poems/Stories

  • The Gibbulous Goon

    If you fish for a wish by a silvery moon, You may well see the Gibbulous Goon. He’s sat there for years with his feet on his ears, And fishers and wishers will see what he hears. For the Goon by the moon has sat there too long He’s heard all he’s seen and he…

  • Tiny paper cuts

    We love art as much as stories. Art is story, in fact. This is true of a super-lovely new book Dom is writing after spotting a beautiful narrative in an illustration (but more of that in the next month or two) and it is especially true of all the illustrations created around Tiny the Giant.…

  • Numbers

    Pick out a number and give it a name pack it with story and let it find fame read all its letters and hear all it says and let it surprise you in wise wordy ways. — Illustration courtesy of, and copyright, Jools Wilson. Follow her on Twitter.

  • listen

    Listen to the rain as you lie in your bed and wonder what the wind has said to the clouds above to make them cry and pour their hearts and wish to die. Which of the following two illustrations is your favourite? —

  • The art of illustration

    For me, finding an illustrator to bring stories to life for children isn’t a question of a choosing a style. It’s a question of choosing a vision. Interpreting a text can lead to mundane mirrors rather than the much more desirable doorways to new worlds which the best picture books represent. The key to finding…

  • Child

    Child. Stay on the small size Don’t become old or wise Always be first to rise Never wear shirts or ties. —

  • The Octopuddle

    When eight-legged creatures fall from the sky They fall with a splash and become Octopi. They fall in a heap, they fall in a muddle And this, my dear friend, is a large Octopuddle. — I’m in an octopuzzle over how illustrators approach a piece of text. How can a single, tiny bit of nonsense…

  • How Far Away

    How far away is the corner of your eye? Is it just past the hill where Lollopods lie? Is it up, it is down, around or abound, Is it miles from where the Falafulls are found? Is it under the sun or over the moon, Or hiding and waiting in just the next room? Is…

  • Nonsense Poems

    I heard a hornet with a cornet make a terrible noise. Beneath the moon it buzzed a tune and scared away the boys. — Stick around with Monday However bad it smells, Keep a hanky close at hand And ring upon your bells. — Out in space you’ll find your face soon breaks up into…

  • Tiny the Giant, I WILL EAT THE MOON

    Read the story below and then buy it in a beautiful paperback edition. Illustrated throughout by Nicola Anderson. — Tiny the Giant was a giant, he was, and a giant needs big things to eat. So from under the tree by the old fish pond he licked his lips at the Moon. ‘I WILL EAT…