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Michael Rosen on Michael Rosen:
I grew up in the London suburb of Pinner, a place my parents often wondered about. How had we landed there? My parents were teachers, politically committed (socialists), and great storytellers and readers. I was lucky to have found them.
Most of my adult life, I've been a freelance writer, teacher (of sorts), journalist, performer and broadcaster. I visit schools doing my one-man show, and support Arsenal Football Club.
I have often written about my life and family, but I also write occasional fantasy (usually based in a real place) and non-fiction.
Things you didn't know about Michael Rosen
I wear size 12 shoes.
I like speaking French.
I'm an atheist.
I love mobile phones.
I love houmous.
I can't live without green warty pickled gherkins.
I hate racism.
My father was American.
I can slide my top lip one way and my bottom lip the other.
I can play the harmonica.
Many Different Kinds of Love has the subtitle ‘A story of life, death and the NHS’. This book is a thank you to the NHS healthcare professionals and helpers who looked after Michael Rosen when he caught Covid-19 last year. These weren’t just doctors and nurses, but also speech & language therapists and physios, all working out of their own comfort zone to help on the frontline. Michael Rosen can’t describe most of his ICU experience, as he spent 48 days in an induced coma. But this diary of his hospital stay uses a mixture of poems, drawings, diaries and letters from hospital staff, family and friends to provide an honest account of what it feels like to care for someone with severe Covid. Michael Rosen talks about not just how he felt physically during his recovery and rehab, but emotionally too – revealing his frailty and fragility. He shows warmth and gratitude for the people who saved his life, and anger towards those who deny the seriousness of the pandemic. This book is full of raw emotion – sad, honest and thought-provoking, but also uplifting, heartwarming and enlightening. A joy to read!
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 17 November 2011. Former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen’s wonderfully touching and witty poems take readers through many familiar family moments such as Dad loosing his glasses in 'Where are his Glasses?' as well as some wildly inventive experiences as in 'A Dangerous Raisin'. Interspersing the poems Rosen adds different versions of his classic 'Down Behind the Dustbin' as a refrain adding many witty variations. There are also some excellent Michael Rosen remixes of classic nursery rhymes.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 26 February 2009. If you only want one collection of poetry on your child’s bookshelf then it has to be this stunning collection by best-selling author Michael Rosen and illustrator Quentin Blake whose pictures complement and bring to life the4 words so perfectly. Alone or together with your child you will be totally transported into the words and pictures and if the book wasn’t good enough it also comes with a CD of the poems read by the author.
A powerful and personal story from one of Britain's best-loved authors about his recovery from coronavirus. After being admitted to hospital in 2020 with coronavirus, Michael Rosen had to learn to walk again. With the support of doctors and nurses and a walking stick he names Sticky McStickstick , he manages to embark on the slow steps to recovery. This moving picture book from the former Children's Laureate, with illustrations from Tony Ross, tells a story of perseverance and hope, and is a testament to the importance of overcoming fear and learning to accept help.
From minding your Ps and Qs to wondering why X should mark the spot, Alphabetical is a book for everyone who loves words and language. Whether it's how letters are arranged on keyboards or Viking runes, textspeak or zip codes, this book will change the way you think about letters for ever. How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the history of the alphabet in twenty-six vivid chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and how sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the strange story of OK, traces our seven lost letters and tackles the tyranny of spelling, among many, many other things. His heroes of the alphabet range from Edward Lear to Phyllis Pearsall (the inventor of the A-Z), and from the two scribes of Beowulf to rappers. Each chapter takes on a different subject - codes, umlauts or the writing of dictionaries. Rosen's enthusiasm for letters positively leaps off the page, whether it's the story of his life told through the typewriters he's owned or a chapter on jokes written in a string of gags and word games. So if you ever wondered why Hawaiian only has a thirteen-letter alphabet or how exactly to write down the sound of a wild raspberry, read on . . .
Two siblings drive their mother to distraction on the car journey from hell, while Mum tries every trick in the book to get them to behave. All together now: Are we nearly there yet...? A hilarious tale from beloved author Michael Rosen now in a hi-lo, dyslexia-friendly format for the struggling middle grade reader.
A hilarious biker bunny tale by former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen, author of We're Going on a Bear Hunt. He's wild, he's wicked, he's Little Rabbit Foo Foo! In this read-aloud romp by the incomparable Michael Rosen, author of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, the bully-boy bunny likes nothing better than to ride through the forest bopping everyone on the head. Wriggly worms, tigers, no one is safe. But here comes the Good Fairy - and she is not amused!
The first in a funny new series from former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen and rising star Robert Starling. This kitten may look cute and cuddly, but better beware: they're angry. Really angry. Angry, angry, angry! And this isn't any old angry . This is a jump-up-and-down, roll-on-the-ground kind of angry. This is a spider-scaring, tiger-scaring kind of angry. This is a burst-balloon-ing, SQUASH-THE-MOON-ING kind of angry... As surreal as things may get, this is also the kind of angry that parents of toddlers will recognize - a bad mood which comes out of nowhere, escalates wildly, then disappears as suddenly as it arrived. Based on the popular poem from A Great Big Cuddle, I Am Angry combines Michael Rosen's brilliant rhymes and anarchic imagination, Robert Starling's perfect knack for character and a reassuring message: anger may feel overpowering, but it doesn't last for ever.
Former Children's Laureates Michael Rosen and Sir Quentin Blake join forces for a personal and uniquely affecting collection of poems about migration. What you leave behind Won't leave your mind. But home is where you find it. Home is where you find it. Michael Rosen and Sir Quentin Blake join forces for a landmark new collection, focusing on migration and displacement. Michael's poems are divided into four: in the first series, he draws on his childhood as part of a first-generation Polish family living in London; in the second, on his perception of the War as a young boy; in the third, on his missing relatives and the Holocaust; and in the fourth, and final, on global experiences of migration. By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is an anthology with a story to tell and a powerful point to make: You can only do something now.
This season, get ready for a striking reimagining of William Shakespeare's classic tale, Macbeth. 12-year-old striker Macbeth has a promising talent on the field. He also has a burning desire to become captain of Shotfield football team, and he is prepared to do whatever it takes. Macbeth's hard-hearted mother also pushes him to succeed - getting ahead to get spotted by academy scouts, even if it means dirty tricks. So when the whistle blows for the big game, fair is foul and fouls are definitely fair! A back-of-the-net retelling of Shakespeare's classic play from bestselling author Michael Rosen, and artistic-genius, Tony Ross.
From Children's Laureates Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell, the bestselling team behind A Great Big Cuddle, comes a first book of nursery rhymes. Flying pigs, wobbling plates of jelly and a giant who trembles whenever he meets a mouse: welcome to the topsy-turvy world of nursery rhymes. Inspired by his lifelong fascination with these peculiar poems, Michael Rosen has placed familiar playground songs alongside forgotten gems for a seminal new collection. Brought to vivid life by Chris Riddell's magnificent pictures, expect familiar faces, from little Jumping Joan to Miss Mary Mack - but also plenty of surprises... With forty rhymes to choose from, this book is sure to prove a bedtime favourite. Huggable and exuberant ... makes you want to smile and stomp to the rhythm. - The Sunday Times on A Great Big Cuddle
It pays to be able to think on your feet, especially if you're about to be eaten alive or cheated out of a valuable prize! And in these hilarious comical adventures by storytelling legend Michael Rosen, two clever kids are more than a match for a hungry grizzly bear and a bored and arrogant king! Read along as two super-smart kids triumph in these perfectly packaged fairy tales with a twist ...
***As heard on The Jeremy Vine Show*** ***As heard on The Cerys Matthews Show*** Michael Rosen is a master of pace and clarity... Essential reading. - The Times, Children's Book of the Week Five stars ... extraordinary and affecting. - The Telegraph, Children's Book of the Week Rosen handles the difficult topic as sensitively and thoughtfully as you would expect, always writing in a straightforward and accessible way for children. - BookTrust, the UK's largest reading charity A personal, powerful and resonant account of the Holocaust by one of this country's best-loved children's authors. By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is the true story of Michael Rosen's search for his relatives who went missing during the Second World War - told through prose, poetry, maps and pictures. When Michael was growing up, stories often hung in the air about his great-uncles: one was a clock-mender and the other a dentist. They were there before the war, his dad would say, and weren't after. Over many years, Michael tried to find out exactly what happened: he interviewed family members, scoured the internet, pored over books and traveled to America and France. The story he uncovered was one of terrible persecution - and it has inspired his poetry for years since. Here, poems old and new are balanced against an immensely readable narrative; both an extraordinary account and a powerful tool for talking to children about the Holocaust. Supported and checked by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. Fascinating, chilling and poignantly personal - Financial Times The Missing may ostensibly concern the Holocaust but, as Rosen makes clear, this is a book about facing down prejudice, defying those who would sow the seeds of hatred and opening our arms to those in need. - Independent
When did you last make time for play? Today, we don't get nearly enough play in our lives. At school, kids are drilled on exams, while at home we're all glued to our phones and screens. Former children's laureate and bestselling author, Michael Rosen, is here to show us how to put this right - and why it matters so much for creativity, resilience and much more. Packed with silliness, activities and prompts for creative indoor and outdoor play for all ages - with specially illustrated pages for everything from doodling to word play and after-dinner games.
Wolfman is on the loose and he is raging and rampaging through town like a terror! Lamp-posts have been ripped up, paving slabs chewed - even the Army has gone into hiding! A hilarious and brilliantly accessible short story with a reading age of 6, designed to help severely struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 8+
The third uproarious adventure from the comic pairing of Michael Rosen and Neal Layton sees Malcolm and his awful Uncle Gobb return, each with a cunning plot ... This time, there is a plot. That's the plot of the story. Or is it? The plot of the story could also be that Uncle Gobb has an evil plot. And his plot is about a plot. A plot of land. Are you following? Good! The plot of land is behind Malcolm's school and it is where Uncle Gobb wants to set up his own rival Dread Shed School of Facts. Oh no! Malcolm is going to need to come up with his own plot to stop Uncle Gobb's plot. So maybe that, in fact, is the actual plot of this story. You'll just have to read this book to find out! A bonkers book about standing up for yourself, from two crazily creative people. Sure to delight fans of Andy Stanton and Tom Gates.
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