These poems are all rather interesting. Something I find might be a hindrance at times is when poetry comes off as too British and too old fashioned. This doesn’t hurt the sound or the meaning, but it makes it unrelatable to the children that might be learning about it. This is just my feeling though, I feel like more updated writing would work better in schools and teachings today. While these are more up dated than others, I feel that these are still a bit too British. “Mrs. McPhee” I think would be a fun read for kids. This woman eats duckling, ducklings! That’s scandalous to a child, who would likely never eat a duckling. The women’s transformation is fun though, like a punishment for eating poor little baby ducks. The poem even plays with the sounds, especially at the end, “Said Mrs. Mac, Mrs. Quack,//Mrs. MacPhee.” It’s a fun poem and for a learning exercise, perhaps they could try to think up silly or not silly names that rhyme with duck sounds, like Mark Bark or something like that. With a more fun thing, maybe try cutting out paper feathers to glue to a cape so mommy or teacher could become Mrs. or Mr. MacPhee.”

Cute ideas here, but isn't Causley's language a bit more accessible than, say, De La Mare's?