Celebrate each age and stage of your child's life with this poetic travelling companion. The Winding Road offers over 200 poems on the theme of childhood and growing up by writers ancient and modern - from Gaelic blessings to Navajo prayers, from William Blake to Eleanor Farjeon and Billy Collins. This rich treasury of poems, verses, blessings and meditations reflects a child's journey from baby to teenager, from first milestones to leaving home:- Bring rhythm, security and intimacy to family life with poems for birthdays, morning verses, mealtime graces and evening prayers: a treasure chest for dipping into - poems for celebration, comfort and insight: poems for younger children to share and older children to read alone: ideas for introducing poetry into family life. 'What pleasure awaits those who not only dip into this book at random, but who also search for the particular poem or verse which has personal meaning. What a gift for the family - and how wonderful to think of a new book growing with the family and being passed on, thoroughly finger-smudged, tear-stained and page-turned.'--- Jamila Gavin, author of Coram Boy Matthew Barton is a translator, editor, teacher and poet. He also taught kindergarten for many years at the Bristol Waldorf School. His first collection of poems, Learning To Row, was published by Peterloo in 1999. He has won numerous prizes for his work, including an Arts Council Writer's Award and a Hawthornden Fellowship.