Plenty of literacy hour material comes in this series. Each book consists of a brief but useful introduction and photocopiable sheets of poems and related activities. For Reception classes, traditional rhymes are largely used and the book includes Shirley Hughes and work from the Caribbean. Material from Shakespeare, Tennyson and Browning, as well as Grace Nichols, is included for Year 2. The sheets are interactive, leading into poetry writing and other playful explorations of language. These are worksheets at their best, demanding intelligent, creative engagement from the children.

I have two quibbles. It really is a bit of gratuitous political correctness to say it’s “naughty children” who are made of slugs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails, and “good children” who are made of sugar and spiceI. Where’s the bite in that? In addition, it follows the errors of the National Literacy Strategy in confusing “beat” (properly “stress”) with syllables. But, over all, this is a set of books well worth having. They know and show the fun of language.