*Why is it

*Why is it

The roustabout Rooster, raging at the dawn

Wakes us so early?

A warrior king is on fire!

His armour is all crooked daggers and scimitars

And it's shivering red-hot - with rage!*

First published in 1984, this book of prose-linked animal poems won both the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Signal Poetry Award. This new, illustated edition remains 'a very beautiful book: God and his son go to visit mankind and ask a few simple questions . . . the poems are pure enchantment' (The School Librarian).