Guest Post: Eilish Fisher
Author of Fia and the Last Snow Deer – which features on our list of Verse Novels for KS2 Children.
The Power of Storytelling Through Verse
The love of words
If I could identify one thing that led to a lifetime of loving poetry it would be my mom. Some of my earliest memories are of her reading and reciting verse at bedtime, when we were sick on the sofa, and even on snow days, curled up in the old wingback chair, cups of sweet tea in our hands. We heard everything from the old traditional Victorian child verses to Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein and even one of my earliest personal favorites, The Shooting of Dan Mcgrew by Robert W. Service.
There was free verse, haiku, sonnets and silly poems, but there were also stories, written in verse, that pulled you in, the rhythm and intensity of each carefully chosen word like teeth biting deep. I have no doubt that my mother loved these words; speaking them, hearing them, sharing them, but I don’t know if she understood at the time the profound influence that every-day act would have.
Poetry as a safe space
Quite simply my mother made poetry a safe and comforting space.
And because it was safe, familiar and uncomplicated it became a tool for emotional expression and wonder. At age six, convinced I had seen a unicorn in the woods behind our house, I wrote about it, each word carefully chosen, the best ones to explain what I had seen and felt, then formed into a shape of a few lines that hung on the refrigerator for many years. The unicorns might have left, but the words stayed.
When I started writing Fia and the Last Snow Deer it was like revisiting that safe space with the benefit of experience.
One of the oldest forms of storytelling
Narrative in verse is not new, or a fad that will pass quickly. It’s one of the oldest forms of storytelling, transgressing cultural boundaries and tapping into our human need to relate to each other, share our words and experiences while connecting to the world around us. Because of the sparsity of language, it requires more instant access to our emotions.
Narrative poetry belongs to everyone
For children, coming to verse for the first time can sometimes be jarring if they are not used to it. Even something as simple as the layout on the page, the white space, the lack of text, all can seem scary. After all, it’s so different from the usual novel or textbook and there might be pre-conceived ideas that poetry is something that is complex and beyond their ability to understand.
For young readers who are already reluctant to pick up a book, the initial shock of the layout can be intimidating. But those are the readers who I believe will gain the most from novels in verse. The confidence gained by completing a large book with age-appropriate language and plenty of white space and illustrations is second only to an understanding that poetry belongs to them as well.
Fia and the Last Snow Deer was written with those reluctant readers in mind. I really believe that once we show them that safe space within the verse and build their confidence, either though reading aloud, or focusing on the illustrations alongside the text, they will start seeing their own unicorns and hopefully, in time, tell us all what they look like.
Thank you to Eilish for visiting our blog this week to tell us more about the narrative verse novel Fia and the Last Snow Deer, which is available from Amazon or Bookshop.
Our review panel said of the book – “Beautifully told in the form of verse, with enchanting illustrations, this is a tale like no other I have read.” Read our full review of Fia and the Last Snow Deer here.
For more children’s books with similar themes, try these booklists:
- Verse Novels for Primary Children
- Poetry for Upper Ks2
- Books for Fans of The Final Year
- Primary Poetry Booklist
- Winter books for children
Check out our reading for pleasure and curriculum booklists to find more books for children in KS2.
Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.