Kids’ Book Review: Review: This is Us
There is music in everything around us. The music
of poetry reflects the music of Life itself.
That’s how it is in This is Us: Essential Poems for
Younger Readers, a celebration of life.
An outstanding collection of poetry chosen by Libby Hathorn and Jude Fell, it contains 61 poems chosen from
states all over Australia.
At times, full of nonsense and laughter, they
include the sky and Earth, and everything in between.
Lots of free verse is mixed in with rhyming and
rhythmic poems – about Nitz, mosquitoes, swans in their majestic beauty,
wombats and lyrebirds.
Tender and deeply moving ones such as
Seeing My
Parents, by Peter Skrzynecki also appear.
Odes to violins and their musical sounds, and to that of rain,
prayed for during a drought, its anger expressed through vivid descriptions of
thunder and lightning.
A rhyming poem about Bellbirds by Henry Kendall, is filled with assonance,
alliteration, and repetition.
I Don’t know What a Poem is For by
Alexa Moses, is clever and entertaining. Orb Spider by Judith
Beverage draws us close to nature.
The contents are presented in chapters under
subject titles, which allows a variation of outlooks on the same subject.
Illustrator Tull Suwannakit decorates the pages
with glorious depictions of the poems that translate to visual stories.
There are long and short ones, familiar and unfamiliar,
others subtly caressing, or strong and assertive. A few old favourites – The
Man from Ironbark by Banjo Paterson, and The Ballad of the Drover with
others, remind us of the brilliance of language, and the importance of visiting
the past and our memories.
A salute to areas of beauty that excel, highlights
of the sky and those of living things of Nature, all bring into focus, the
wonderous use of words in poetry, and the pleasure of the sounds that reading
them aloud presents.
Ideal for older readers
and classroom discussions. Poet biographies, Acknowledgements and an Index of
poets and poetry close the book.
Title: This is Us: Essential Australian Poems for Young People
Author: Assorted
Illustrator: Tull Suwannakit
Publisher: NLA, $ 34.99
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781922507860
For ages: 10+
Type: Poetry
