A dementia-friendly selection of much-loved verses by classic poets!

Sometimes it’s hard to maintain conversation with a loved one, as so much of our chit-chat relies on short-term memory. “How has your week been? Did you go to the concert? Did you get outside yesterday?” These are normal, friendly questions, but are challenging for anyone living with memory loss or confusion.

The solution for those who have been poetry-lovers – and animal-lovers – excerpts from classic poems by great poets. These verses are paired with beautiful photographs of animals, to encourage shared reading, discussion and connection. There have been studies showing the value of poetry in shared reading for people living with dementia. They describe the effect of the rhythm, the rhyme, the familiarity of the verses, and the profound messages captured in a few words – plus the experience of sharing this with another person.

There are a number of books in this series now, and the bird and animal poems are the latest collections. There beautiful poems about animals are from poets like Shakespeare, William Blake, Emily Dickinson and John Clare. Some poets are less well-known but the poems are just as delightful. (I had to exclude some famous poems, as they were tributes to deceased or hunted animals, and I only select positive, cheerful poems for this series.)

40 pages, extra large font, in a bright, slim, light 8 × 10 paperback.
There is no reference to dementia or other illness inside the book or on the cover. The back cover says simply: A selection of classic poetry about animals. Keep your mind active as you read aloud or read along!

You can find Illustrated Animal Poetry on Amazon by clicking on this universal link: https://mybook.to/AnimalPoetry – or why not try your local library? (Tell them it’s ISBN number 9781922191861.)