The Children’s Poetry Award
When I read Catherine Poarch’s Inside Elephant, I was faced with a dilemma. Several books entered this year were written primarily for children, and this was the best of them. Yet, when placed alongside collections aimed at adults, it would still have ranked highly, but not quite high enough to win outright—largely because of the natural constraints that come with writing for a younger audience.
To address this imbalance, I suggested to Dave Lewis, the organiser, that we create a new category—an award specifically for poetry books written for children. He kindly agreed. This doesn’t mean that poetry for children will be excluded from the main competition; quite the opposite. Inside Elephant is proof that work written for younger readers can captivate adults too. I was utterly absorbed by it.
– John Evans, October 2025
The 2025 Award
Catherine Poarch was born at Baie Sainte Anne, Praslin, Seychelles, so long ago it was before electricity.
She lives in Bristol where she works as a teacher with young people with learning difficulties.
Catherine also loves the England rugby team more than words can say!
To buy a copy – click here.
Judge’s Comment:
Catherine Poarch’s Inside Elephant captures the spirit of empathy and wonder that poetry can inspire in young minds. Her poems look at the natural world through a child’s eyes, yet never talk down to the reader. The book is beautifully illustrated by Emma Weston, whose artwork perfectly complements Poarch’s vision—gentle, imaginative, and full of warmth.
From ‘Dust’
Laika, the small Jack Russell, spinning through silence, breathing the hush of a planet. No bark, no cry, no sound but the slow thud of her heart. ‘Dust’ retells Laika’s tragic story with heartbreaking restraint. I’ve always had Jack Russell terriers, and that story—a real one—has haunted me all my life. Poarch gives it back its dignity, its stillness.
I am nothing to you.
I am dust that is lost.
I am trial and error
without any cost.
I am blown to the stars
in the heat of a race.
I am Laika.
Just Laika.
The first dog in space.
From ‘Nobody’
Nobody likes a hyena,
the sneer, the laugh, the lope.
That’s the opening of ‘Nobody’, a poem that changed the way I see the animal. I loved all creatures as a child, yet even I struggled with hyenas. Poarch’s empathy makes us pause, reflect, and look again.
From ‘Animals on the Move’
The penguins are flying at Bristol Zoo,
out of a sunny green sky.
And the marionettes, doing slow pirouettes,
are the hippos, just snorkelling by.
The pandas are climbing like lumberjacks
into the shadowy trees.
And while hottest Calcutta is melting like butter,
the elephants swim for the seas.
The meerkats are waiting like jumping beans,
to spring from their dusty tracks.
But in wickedly eerier, whitest Siberia,
wolves are all skiing in packs.
The whales are rising and taking flight,
while the earth spins on its groove.
Whether surfing the tide or abseiling off-side,
there are animals on the move.
‘Animals on the Move’ is an extraordinary poem—a playful, surreal, yet deeply serious look at the impact of climate change. The world literally and metaphorically turns upside down. It’s a clever, thought-provoking way to help children grasp what’s happening to their planet.
This is poetry that educates without preaching—that makes young readers think, laugh, and feel, and the kind of poetry this new award seeks to celebrate.
– John Evans, October 2025
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