Book Review: Thoughtings – Puzzles, Problems and Paradoxes in Poetry to Think With

With World Poetry Day on 21^st March this year,

We thought we’d review a book, without any fear.

Puzzles, problems and paradoxes in poetry,

Thoughtings by Worley and Day is full of opportunity.

So, as we review this magical book,

There are many exercises to use as a hook.

Pupils will love the pondering philosophical questions,

That will leave you with great teaching sessions.

Ok, we’ll stop. This is no ordinary poetry book – it is more than that, and goes beyond the usual remits for exploring verse. Thoughtings is a collection of philosophical poems that lead to questions to help pupils explore their opinions and thoughts further, challenging children to explore whether things are what they seem to us to be.

Challenging children to think about: minds and brains; word wonders; poems to do; number wonders; puzzles and paradoxes; you, me, aliens and others; space, time and other weird things; how do you know that?; love, goodness and happiness; are you free?; school rules. Each poem with the book contains a series of questions created to get pupils thinking deeply about the theme of the verse, encouraging answers which are not right or wrong…we all view the world uniquely and our thoughts make us what we are. In fact, the book explores what thoughts are with this poem:

I had a thought

I kept it in my mind

Where’s that?

My mind is in my brain

Which is in my head

Which is under my hat.

Following on from the poem above, the authors give guidance questions which encourage philosophical thinking and investigation – and this is the same with all the other poems within this book. These poems are great for use in any p4c sessions you might be teaching, with the book being a great resource to be able to dip into when needed.

Thoughtings – Puzzles, Problems and Paradoxes in Poetry to Think With, written by Peter Worley and Andrew Day, is published by Independent Thinking Press, an imprint of Crown House Publishing, with an RRP of £14.99. The book is available from Amazon (Hardback) priced £12.73, or for Kindle priced £8.99. Please view via the Amazon link below:

You need to Login or Register to bookmark/favorite this content.