This collection of over 250 poems provides a one-volume source of former poet laureate of Great Britain Ted Hughes’s contribution to children’s po etry. The full range of Hughes’s creative genius is exemplified in poems that are playful, joyful, imaginative, and thoughtful. Poems for younger children from books such as The Mermaid’s Purse (1991) and The Cat and the Cuckoo (1987) come first, followed by more complex poems from What Is the Truth? (1984) and Season Songs (1975) for older readers. Raymond Briggs has cre ated many small, soft-pencil drawings to complement the subjects and moods of the poems. The volume is indexed by titles and by first lines . ca

Originally published by Faber and Faber Great Britain, in 2005.