"The Works has been a great go-to book for thousands of teachers for the last 25 years. Poetry needs space, time and ‘air’ so that children can find it, browse it, hear it and speak it. The Works does the work.” - Michael Rosen

The Works poetry collection is 25 years old! This special anniversary edition features brand-new lesson plans from poets including John Foster, Brian Moses, Valerie Bloom and Pie Corbett.

The Works contains every kind of poem you will ever need for school, but it is also a book packed with brilliant poems that will delight any reader.

It's got chants, action verses, riddles, tongue twisters, shape poems, puns, acrostics, haikus, cinquains, kennings, couplets, thin poems, lists, conversations, monologues, epitaphs, songs, limericks, tankas, nonsense poems, raps, narrative verse and performance poetry that's just for starters.

Featuring poems from the very best classic and modern poets, including: William Blake, Michael Rosen, Robert Louis Stevenson, Allan Ahlberg, W.H. Auden, Brian Patten, Roger McGough, Roald Dahl, Charles Causley, Eleanor Farjeon, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ted Hughes, T.S. Eliot and William Shakespeare and many more.

A book packed with gems for dipping in to time and time again.

The Works has been a great go-to book for thousands of teachers for the last 25 years. Poetry needs space, time and ‘air’ so that children can find it, browse it, hear it and speak it. The Works does the work. -- Michael Rosen

Paul Cookson spends most of his time visiting schools, performing his poetry and helping children to write their own poems. He has compiled lots of poetry anthologies for Macmillan, including The Works and 100 Brilliant Poems for Children. He supports Everton and lives with his family in Nottinghamshire.