Family Poetry

Packed full of magic and adventure - a collection of seven fantastic stories from the creators of the bestselling What the Ladybird Heard series. Read by lots of fantastic and famous voices, it's perfect for listening to at home, in the car, at bedtime or any time at all! Join in the adventure...

Robert Lee Frost was born on the 26th March 1874 in San Francisco, California. He sold his first poem in 1894 for $15. In 1924 he received the first of four Pulitzer Prizes. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 31 times. He died on the 29th January 1963 in Boston.

There were many things that Hollie McNish didn't know before she was pregnant. How her family and friends would react; that Mr Whippy would be off the menu; how quickly ice can melt on a stomach. These were on top of the many other things she didn't know about babies: how to stand while holding one; how to do a poetry gig with your baby as a member of the audience; how drum'n'bass can make a great lullaby. But Hollie learned. And she's still learning, slowly.

“When life throws you a bag of sorrow, hold out your hands/Little by little, mountains are climbed.” So ends Kate Baer’s remarkable poem “Things My Girlfriends Teach Me”. In “Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels” she challenges her listener to consider their grandmother’s cake, the taste of the sea, the cool swill of freedom. In her poem “Deliverance” about her son's birth she writes, “What is the word for when the light leaves the body/What is the word for when it/ at last, returns”.

Phil Kaye’s debut collection is a stunning tribute to growing up, and all of the challenges and celebrations of the passing of time, as jagged as it may be. Kaye takes the listener on a journey from a complex but iridescent childhood, drawing them into adolescence, and finally on to adulthood. There are first kisses, lost friendships, hair blowing in the wind while driving the vastness of an empty road, and the author in the middle, trying to make sense of it all. Date & Time is a welcoming story, which freezes the calendar and allows us all to live in our best moments.

Rese Barrett and Lance Michelli have agreed to run her Sonoma B&B as partners. But Lance is still driven to unravel the mystery behind papers he found buried in the basement there: papers left by his grandfather, who built this house two generations ago. Now they have gone to Lance's family in New York to find some answers.

A tender, searching collection of poems that breaks open notions of faith to ask how a daughter, alienated from kin, can find love and a home in the world, from the award-winning author of If They Come for Us and When We Were Sisters at the edge of an edge is an edge. at that edge is a cliff...

From Instagram phenomenon Whitney Hanson, a brand-new collection of poems exploring themes of identity, loss, and what it means to rediscover yourself the love of my life is a poetry collection that traces the process of rediscovering a love of life after change, disconnection, and personal...

The Pulitzer Prize winner’s final written work: poems of penetrating acceptance and humor, whose soul-sweeping gaze encompasses his own autobiography and the broken world he nonetheless gives thanks for “His hands strip poetry to its nub.” —Los Angeles Times “Reading [Wright] is like...

But Family Poems is so extensive, with over one hundred original poems, in the variations for such relatively few categories, I felt the ability for the listener to "see" the full inside index of included titles, was essential. Within the categories of mom and dad, children and grandchildren, brothers and sisters, and extended family, my wife Sheila and I present the past and present body of poetry that began our wanting to create this many poems.

A fascinating historical novel about Hilde, an orphan who experiences Berlin on the cusp of World War II as she discovers her own voice and sexuality, ultimately finding a family when she gets a job at a gay cabaret, by award-winning author Kip Wilson. On her eighteenth birthday, Hilde leaves...

Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts & Poems explores not only Madsen's remarkable life and experiences in and out of Hollywood, but also his familial influences that have participated in crafting and shaping him, including thoughts on his father; his mother and the rumor that he was born without a left hand; ghosts, whiskey, and payback; Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, and "sensitive sons of bitches"; the mentality of actors and growing up to be a man; his first audition; drunken behavior; epic drinkers; and much, much more.

In the spirit of his New York Times best seller Love Poems for Married People and Love Poems for People with Children, as well as his wildly popular New Yorker pieces, Thurber Prize-winner John Kenney presents a hilarious new collection of poetry for anxious people.

Full of brilliant wit, dynamic energy, and a heavy dose of reality, Love Poems for Married People takes the poetic form, turns it upside-down, and leaves it in the dishwasher to dry. Inspired by one of the most shared New Yorker pieces of all time, this collection captures the reality of life once the spark of a relationship has settled - and hilariously so. With brand new pieces that cover all areas of married life, Kenney's wry observations and sharp humor remind us exactly what it's like to spend the rest of your life with the person you love.

Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama is growing up, but he still loves to play with all his toys! When Mama Llama says it's time to clean up, Llama responds like any child more interested in playing than cleaning...by ignoring her! But Mama has an imaginative response of her own. What if she never cleaned? What would happen then? Well, Llama Llama is going to find out! Here is a truly funny take on a childhood chore that all children will relate to and laugh at! And it is sure to be helpful to get kids cleaning up!

Parting Ways is a book of poetry in support of birth mothers and our adopted children. Birth mothers, may you always know what a courageous and selfless decision you had to make. And to all our adopted children, may you know how much you are loved and cherished by the women who carried you and still do in their hearts forever.

Maternal mental illness is an ongoing health crisis and deserves awareness, not only in the medical world but in the poetry world, too. Bridget Bell’s All that We Ask of You Is to Always Be Happy offers support to current mothers, mothers-to-be, family members of people suffering from perinatal mental illnesses, OB-GYNs, nurses, and any other healthcare providers. Bell uses various poetic forms to shed light on the challenges that come with motherhood, including the physical and emotional challenges of childbirth while celebrating the beauty of women’s strength and resilience.

From the author of the highly acclaimed The Magnificent Ruins comes the electric story of two sisters who have to navigate a terrible betrayal from within their family. Indian-American Mira Guhathakurta is a poetry editor at a distinguished literary magazine in New York. She reconnects with...

After receiving the news that in vitro would be her only hope for biological children, award-winning poet Emily Adams had to learn to live in a new world of needles, embarrassing tests, long waiting periods, and expensive doctor appointments.

A book of over 135 poems from the heart of the young woman who went to Romania to teach English in Anne's book "Once Upon a School Day". These warm, catching, sometimes modern, sometimes classic poems will touch your heart and bring tears to your eyes as you read the journey this young woman has walked through life.