The Complete Poetical Works of Phoebe Flood
Digital version – browse, print or download
Can't see the preview?
Click here!
How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.
BfK Newsletter
Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!
Cover Story
The cover of this issue is a design incorporating illustrations from four books illustrated by the subject of our Authorgraph, Ian Beck. The top left illustration is from Five Little Ducks (Orchard), the top right from Poppy and Pip's Picnic (to be published Autumn '97 by HarperCollins), the bottom left from The Owl and the Pussy-cat (Transworld) and the bottom right from Home Before Dark (to be published September '97 by Scholastic). Ian Beck's Picture Book (Hippo) is reviewed in this issue.
Beck talks to BfK's interviewer, Julia Eccleshare, also in this issue. His distinctive decorative style with its sensitive pen line and cross hatching has a nostalgic but sometimes also a surreal quality - he describes it as 'a look that is floating, strong and wistful all at the same time'.
Thanks to Orchard, HarperCollins, Transworld and Scholastic for their help in producing this composite cover.
PDF
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
The Complete Poetical Works of Phoebe Flood
Lauren Child
Auntie Flick was so sick at the vicar's She was sick in her best party knickers Which she'd just taken off To cover a cough - She's jolly polite, Auntie Flick is. Written in a pseudo-juvenile, naive style, I'm afraid Phoebe Flood often made me wince rather than smile. Some of the poems are well made and amusing and children may like them. Others seem too close to the distinctive voices of Milne, Rosen, Wright, et al. Whitworth has his thoughtful moments and there is an engaging haiku: two purry cats on my duvet this morning - dead mouse in my knickers but 'Phoebe's' commentaries which litter the collection felt contrived and often smirk at the adult above the head of the child, with references to Heaney, Shakespeare and 'found' poems. I may be underestimating the verse equivalent of Adrian Mole but I am not convinced that a book like this respects young readers; nor does it offer Whitworth the best vehicle for his talents.