November 20, 2017

Charley Poon's Pomes by Robin Hawdon - Review

I received this book free from the publisher. All opinions are my own

Book details
Paperback: 70 pages
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing (November 7, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1912262436
ISBN-13: 978-1912262434

Book description
Unable to find good funny poems to read aloud to his grandchildren - other than the seventy year old A.A. Milne classics - British playwright Robin Hawdon sat down to write some himself. The result is this collection of thirty hilarious and touching poems, beautifully illustrated by Wendy Hoile, which recount the exploits of young Charley Poon - every parent’s nightmare - and his eccentric menagerie of nursery animals. The poems cover everything from youthful games and exploits, to the problems of growing up, to the ups and downs of school and family life, and the joys of country and seaside holidays. Parents and grandparents will be delighted to have something new and entertaining with which to occupy those tricky lights-out bedtime moments.


Meet the author - Robin Hawdon
Dividing his time between Bath, Australia and the South of France, actor, playwright and grandfather Robin Hawdon has enjoyed a successful forty year career in the entertainment industry. During the early years he was a regular face on British TV — appearing in many series and co-starring with Michael Crawford in ITV’s ‘Chalk and Cheese’ and starring in a number of films. He has trod the boards as Hamlet, Henry V and Henry Higgins in Pygmalion and in leading roles in London’s West End. Later his love of writing dominated his career and he is now recognised as one of the UK’s most prolific comedy playwrights —with productions including The Mating Game which has played in over thirty countries and Don’t Dress For Dinner which ran in the West End for six years before playing on Broadway and around the English speaking world. Many of his plays are published by Samuel French and Josef Weinberger. Robin has also directed a number of stage productions, and in the 1980’s founded the Bath Fringe festival, and subsequently became Director of the Theatre Royal Bath, England’s premier touring theatre. He has written several novels including A Rustle in the Grass, published by Hutchinsons in 1984 and republished recently by Thistle. A second novel, The Journey was published in 2002 by Hawthorns and a third, Survival of the Fittest, by SBPR in 2013. His first foray into children’s literature,


My thoughts
This was a fun colorful book to read.  The author did a good job with getting the writing style correct. By this I mean you felt like you were reading poems written by a little boy. They were fun and silly. I also like the font they used because it looked like a little boy's crayon handwriting. The drawings that went along with the poems were cute as well. One of my favorite poems was Joe the Jrafe - yes that is spelled correctly remember a little boy was writing these. Joe was a giraffe with a loud laugh that was so loud he scared people and he laughed at everything. So Charley's mom taught Joe how to laugh more quietly so he would not scare people. His spelling poem was cute as well. In it he wants to know why things sound the same but are spelled different. I loved all the little misspellings in the book it just made it more like you were reading a book your young boy wrote. I can't wait to pass this on to my nephew. I think he will find it funny. 


No comments:

Post a Comment