Featured Poem: A Song of Toad by Kenneth Grahame

This week, from October 1st-7th, is Children's Book Week 2012. As happens every year, the week is dedicated to children reading for pleasure, discovering new books and revisiting old companions with an imaginative outlook, extending reading choice, exploring libraries and bookshops - and generally, celebrating the endless fun that comes from reading.

At The Reader Organisation, we encourage children to read for pleasure and think that the most fun can be had from reading is when a story or a poem is shared with an audience. Our read-aloud anthology, A Little, Aloud for Children, is designed exactly to bring the pleasures of reading to life for children, with a selection of classic and contemporary extracts giving variety and keeping the smiles firm on many faces for a long time. What's more, the read-aloud quality of all the stories and poems included means that the pleasure can be shared with big kids, too.

To celebrate the arrival of Children's Book Week 2012, this week's Featured Poem has been especially picked from A Little, Aloud for Children. The theme of this year's event is 'Heroes and Heroines', so we just had to showcase a rather unconventional hero of classic children's literature...

A Song of Toad

The world has held great Heroes,
As history-books have showed;
But never a name to go down to fame
Compared to that of Toad!

The clever men at Oxford
Know all there is to be knowed.
But they none of them know one half as much
As intelligent Mr Toad!

The animals sat in the ark and cried,
Their tears in torrents flowed.
Who was it said, 'There's land ahead'?
Encouraging Mr Toad!

The Army all saluted
As they marched along the road.
Was it the King? Or Kitchener?
No. It was Mr Toad.

The Queen and her ladies-in-waiting
Sat at the window and sewed.
She cried, 'Look! Who's that handsome man?'
They answered, 'Mr Toad.'

The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop
As it raced along the road.
Who was it steered it into a pond?
Ingenious Mr Toad!

Kenneth Grahame

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We'd love to hear about how you've been enjoying A Little, Aloud for Children over Children's Book Week - be sure to head to our A Little, Aloud blog to share your experiences of reading the book - and let us know about all the fun you've had!