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).