n this delightful mini anthology we find touching and uplifting poems exploring sons as babies and sons as young men, as well as everything in between.
 
We meet a boy daydreaming in bed on a summer’s evening, his mother delighting in his wakefulness as his imagination roams in the dark. There’s a son begging his dad for a bedtime story, which must be different from the last one.
 
And then there are unforgettable rites of passage such as a gap year, which turns out to be as much of an adventure for the parent as for the child:
 
“My heart soars like the birds in your bright blue skies.
My love glows like the sunrise over the lost city.
I sing along to Ella Fitzgerald, A tisket A tasket.
I have a son out in the big wide world.”
from ‘Gap Year’ by Jackie Kay
 
The poems are a reminder of the delights, joys and endless surprises of watching a son grow through childhood into whatever happens next.
 
Poems by Emily Blewitt, Josephine Corcoran, Glyn Edwards, Langston Hughes, Jackie Kay, Galway Kinnell, Li-Young Lee, David Morley, Sinéad Morrissey and Naomi Shihab Nye.
 
Cover illustration by Caroline Barker.