Updated 2nd July 2010
Two new books on the way:
A new book of poems called:
‘Michael Rosen’s Big Book of Bad Things’ (Puffin) due out later this year
...and a new picture book called
‘Tiny Little Fly’ illustrated by Kevin Waldron (Walker)
Here is my latest news from March to June 2010:
The Roald Dahl Funny Prize winding up again for 2010.
This is an article I wrote for the New Statesman magazine about the revamped Jewish Museum in Camden, London.
Coming up is the English and Media Centre’s Emag conference for sixth formers. This is how it’s billed.
Every Child a Talker have put up 6 videos of me talking about talk (!) and performing live with children ‘Bear hunt’ and ‘My name’s Joe’
Here’s a short Guardian article about family holidays.
A nice mention here: ‘Rosen to the occasion’ (!)
…and here on a visit to a school in Bromley.
Short interview at Teach Well Teach Often.
I was asked to give a quick speech to open the restored and updated West House in the Memorial Park in Pinner. I used to walk past this house on the way to school every morning and it was where my mother used to do Scottish Dancing lessons, It’s not re-opening as a gallery space and archive for the artist and cartoonist, William Heath Robinson. Here’s how the local newspapers wrote up the day; Harrow Observer and Harrow Times.
I was awarded the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award by the National Union of Teachers for ‘campaigning for education’. My parents were longstanding members of the NUT, my mother campaigned for equal pay for women, and my father for comprehensive education so it was a proud moment for me to receive this.
Teachers – videos of me doing my poems. And they’re for free!
Here are some videos of me performing poems that you can download straight on to your whiteboards. Unlike my YouTube videos, I don’t think these will be blocked. Here are the first ones that they have uploaded. More to come.
Here’s a great new site called Authors Hotline. This is my page.
Here’s me having a chat with a talking sheep from an ancient TV show called ‘Ghost Train’
Here’s an article about Benjamin Zephaniah and me by Lara Saguigag. It comes from Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.
Here’s an article I wrote for the Independent some time ago about going back to my old secondary school, Watford Grammar School.
Here’s a podcast of me at the Institut Francais (French Institute) in London talking to the French writer Gregoire Solotareff and then doing a show – audio file
Here are some new poems:
Pelicans
My Mum told me that
when I was two
she took me to St James’s Park
to see the pelicans.
I looked in books at pelicans.
Great big pelicans
with beaks like shopping bags
She said:
one day we’ll go back to
St James’s Park to see the pelicans.
I said:
Yes, let’s
She told me that
When I was three
When I was four
When I was five
When I was six
When I was seven
When I was eight
When I was nine
When I was ten
But we never did.
We never went back to St James’s Park
to see the pelicans.
Sixty years later
I went
on my own
to St James’s Park
to see the pelicans.
I walked across the grass,
over to the water.
I so wanted to see the pelicans.
I looked
But there were none.
No pelicans.
So I walked along by the side of the water
And I thought of me being two years old
And my mother being thirty years old
And how I must have looked at the pelicans.
And I carried on walking,
I walked over a little bridge
And I looked out across the water
And…
…there was a pelican.
And another
And another
And so they were there:
the pelicans
standing with their beaks
like shopping bags
and I thought of:
me being two years old
and my mother being thirty years old
and the pelicans being there
and not being there
and then being there after all,
the pelicans.
Attack
I was in a public toilet
when I was attacked by a hair-dryer.
PHOOOOOO!
I had walked past it calmly.
I hadn’t said anything provocative.
I didn’t stare at it.
I didn’t disrespect it
I didn’t say, ‘Look at you stuck on the wall
Nowhere to go, nothing to do
Who are you? Johnny No-mates?’
I did none of these things.
But still it leapt at me
Pumping out hot air:
PHOOOOOO!
Roaring in my face:
PHOOOOOO!
Roughing up my hair:
PHOOOOOO!
I said, Excuse ME!
And it said:
PHOOOOOO!
Once
Once there was a boy who
wanted to be beautiful
and a girl who
wanted to be strong.
The boy was worried
that he wasn’t beautiful enough.
The girl was worried
that she wasn’t strong enough.
One day they went out to seek
their fortunes.
But there was nothing.
There was nowhere for them to go
Nothing for them to see
No one for them to meet.
There was no story for them
to be in.
They couldn’t even meet each other.
You may have thought they had already met
but they hadn’t
because there wasn’t anywhere
for them to meet.
Until you came along
and decided that you can do
something about it.
As you can see, I’ve joined Twitter. I’ll be putting up messages every day, some gags, some news, some thoughts.
Here are some reviews:
Adrian Mitchell celebration evening.
Red Ted and the Lost Things’
(you might have to scroll down to find them)
readtorecommend.blogspot.com
blaine.org
rosemoo.blogspot.com
publishersweekly.com
Here are some new poems:
Where Broccoli Comes From
Not many people know
that broccoli grows in the armpits
of very big green men
who live in the forest
and brave broccoli cutters
go deep into the forests
and they creep up on the
very big green men.
They wait for the
very big green men
to fall asleep
and the broccoli cutters
get out their
great big broccoli razors
and they shave the
armpits
of the very big green men.
And that’s where broccoli
comes from.
Not many people know that.
Just thought I’d let you know.
The One You Stop is You
We met me in a shelter
waiting for a bus.
We said we didn’t like me
I was afraid of us.
We stood in my way,
to stop me getting on the bus,
but the driver would only drive
if I was on the bus.
So we all got on
as I was one of us.
Introduction Song
Going to use my feet today
Don’t know who I’ll meet today
Going to keep the beat today
Going to use my feet today
Going to use my eyes today
Look out for the lies today
Try to be wise today
Going to use my eyes today
Going to use my ears today
Going to have no fears today
Never mind the tears today
Going to use my ears today
Going to use my mind today
Leave bad things behind today
See what I can find today
Going to use my mind today
Going to use what I’ve got today
How and where and what today
Going to use the lot today
Going to use what I’ve got today.
The Computer Explains How the Boy Dealt With a Very Bad Cold
He downloaded his nose
into a Microsoft tissue.
Thanks to Sasha Hoare, the last laureate idea that I had, has seen the light of day. This is a an 'e-safe' site for schools and children to post up poetry in performance. The poems can be poems that the children write, poems that are out of copyright, or poems that poets have given permission to schools to use.
Please log on and help turn the site - and schools - into places where poetry flourishes.
This is the address: http://performapoem.lgfl.org.uk/
To browse an index of older news stories, visit the News Archive.
For a selection of News stories aimed at Adults, Teachers and Journalists please click here.
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