A Magical Book of Poems

If your kids are like mine, they love anything to do with magic, witches and wizards. I love sharing the magic of poetry with them, so what better way to do that and feed their desire for the mystical than with Magic Poems, compiled by John Foster and illustrated by the award winning Korky Paul. This collection of 18 poems deals with all things magical and humorous, from the legend of Quickspell the Wizard (by Jack Ousby), to the story of A Very Modern Witch (by Charles Thomson) with a souped-up broom, you'll enjoy the funny along with the fantastic. Other poems in the collection include:

• Where Goblins Dwell, a celebration of imagintion by the legendary Jack Prelutsky
• Harry Hobgoblin's Superstore, by David Harmer that describes a shop I'd love to check out
• Willy the Wizard's Shopping Trip, by Paul Cookson, which imagines what the chain stores of the wizarding world might be
• Dinner on Elm Street, by Michaela Morgan, a jab at school lunches that shows the lunch lady in the same vein as the Three Witches from Macbeth
• The Ballad of the Waterbed by Max Fatchen tells the tale of a piratical boy and his nightly adventures
• The Marvellous Trousers by Richard Edwards is the story of a magical pair of pants the adventures they gave the one who found them. These are some real traveling pants.
• The Magician, by Gareth Owen recounts an unfortunate mishap involving a little girl's party, a father palying magician and a disappearing box
  
• Maxo, the Magician, by Richard Edwards is a funny story of the revenge of a magician's hat
• Miranda, the Queen of the Air by Doug MacLeod is the tragic story of Miranda and a levitating panda
• Wanted--A Witch's Cat by Shelagh McGee is an ad that a witch might place in the paper for a proper familiar
• Genie by Trevor Millum is a tale of mistaken identity
• Sir Guy and the Enchanted Princess by David Harmer is one of my personal favorites, tells the tale of a knight in not so shining armor and a princess who rides off alone into the night
• Mang, Katon, and the Crocodile King by Jennifer Tweedie is a heroic tale of the defeat of a the Crocodile King. It's cute by very hard to read aloud in my experience.
• Dreaming the Unicorn by Tony Mitton is a lovely celebration of dreams
• The Moon's Magic by Andrew Collet is a tale of the magical nature of the moon and the fate that befalls the greedy
• The Lonely Enchanter by Marian Swinger is a sad story about the distance that power places between those with it and those without

If your kids enjoy this collection, be sure to check out the other anthologies by John Foster in this Oxford University Press Series, including Dinosaur Poems, Monster Poems and Dragon Poems.