All the Frogs

John Mole ranks with the finest of his contemporaries; poets such as Causley. Ted Hughes and Christopher Reid ... Mole's reader, for whose pleasure he writes – and never down – is the young person who understands, or – sometimes – nearly understands.

-- Robert Hull * Books for Keeps *

John Mole's poems for children are simply good poems which are accessible.

-- Mary Sullivan * The Guardian *

Great control and a variety of shapes and forms. Mole moves from the sharply comic to the evocative, and is good, as a poet should be, in suggesting things happening off the page.

-- Matthew Sweeney * The Sunday Telegraph *

Here now is another set of luminous and well-judged poems, never a phrase too many, never one short, demonstrating that there is infinitely more to the good poem than the number of words lying on the page. John Mole loves language, uses it with subtlety and skill, and is quite unafraid of making demands on his young audience. The effect, quietly engineered, is always arresting, often surprising. The pictures they paint, the sentiments they express, seem to dissolve and reassemble before one's eyes as if by some process of magic. The work of a true poet.

-- Charles Causley * Times Educational Supplement *

It is always been one of Mole's strengths, as he exploits the two-way traffic between both.

-- Gavin Ewart * Times Literary Supplement *

In numerous courses, informal talks to teachers, and in readings to children, I don't think I've recommended any poet more often than John Mole in recent years.

-- Stephen Bicknell * Signal *

He is one of the best and already has many fans.

-- Gillian Clarke * Times Educational Supplement *

A new John Mole collection is good news.

-- Anne Harvey * The Guardi