A Child’s Garden of Curses

Reimagine thirteen cherished tales from the Brothers Grimm, now retold in lively, rhyming verse. Each poem deftly captures a pivotal scene or feeling, using rich language to paint a vivid word-picture. As the familiar stories unfold through traditional meter and rhyme, young readers will expand their vocabularies, meet unfamiliar words in an understandable context, and improve their comprehension. Rhyming narratives stick in the memory, allowing children to chant captivating texts while sharpening their linguistic abilities. When children discover the delight of playful poetry, their appetite for magical new words grows. Let the rhythm and wonder of these fairy-tale verses spur a lifelong love of language.

Jan has always been drawn to storytelling and poetry, which led her to pursue literature studies as a teenager. She holds Associate and Licentiate Teaching Certificates in the Theory and Practice of Speech from Trinity College, London. Her poetry appears in four recent Annual Journals of the Society of Classical Poets (NYK). Jan strongly believes in enriching children’s reading experiences by retelling their favourite tales in traditional ways, such as narrative rhyming verse, a form which stimulates the memory. She believes in introducing children to poetry, not so much as a poetic form, but as an alternative and captivating way to tell a story, a way that encourages them to experiment with the rhythm and melody of language.