Coyote's Soundbite: A Poem For Our Planet By John Agard

Excitement spreads like bushfire through the jungle. Earth-goddesses are planning a conference! From Australia to Antarctica, the Amazon to Africa, goddesses will debate the burning environmental issues of our times...and bushy-tailed, smooth-talking Coyote wants in on the action! Can this infamous trickster come up with a plan to infiltrate the conference and leave a lasting legacy for our planet? A rip-roaring poem by a master poet, inspired by Earth Day.

Coyote’s Soundbite: A Poem for Our Planet is a poem for our time, with a strong environmental message as we face the unprecedented global emergency of climate breakdown. A perfect celebration for Earth Day on the 22nd April, this book will help children to understand this message in an accessible, fun and engaging way.

We love the exciting narrative of this poem, as we are introduced to the earth-goddesses from all corners of the planet, with insights into mythology from around the world. Beautifully crafted collage-based illustrations will engage young readers as we find out if the earth-goddesses and Coyote can come together to save our planet from destructive human impact.  

John Agard, born in Guyana, is a world-renowned poet and  performer. He has won numerous awards including the Queen’s Gold  Medal for Poetry, the Smarties Award, the Paul Hamlyn Award and  the Casa de las Americas Poetry Award. 

Piet Grobler is a South African illustrator who has published over  85 books. He has won numerous national and international prizes  including a Golden Apple at the Biennale for Illustration, Bratislava  (Slovakia), the Children’s Africana Book award (USA), and two Silver  medals (1997 and 2003) in the Noma Concours (Japan).

Author: John Agard

Illustration: Piet Grobler

Age: 7+ years

32 pages - Hardback 

Printed on FSC certified paper with non petroleum based inks

Award winning children's book publisher and social enterprise, Lantana Publishing, have a mission to publish inclusive books that are changing the game of publishing, commissioning books that celebrate diversity, equality, and environmental sustainability. In the UK, a third of school children identify as being Black, Asain, or Minority Ethnic (BAME), but yet less than 5% of books are representative of BAME characters. Further to this, less than 2% are authors or book creators represented by British people of colour, even less than this are representative of the LGBTQ+ communities or disabled. Lantana believes that every child deserves to see themselves in the books they read.