When Julie O'Callaghan reads her poems to teenagers, the teachers stand at the classroom door to eavesdrop. The secret of her success as an acclaimed children's writer is that - far from writing down to young readers - her poems identify totally with them. Anyone who has longed for hair with zing, hoped to persuade their parents to part with the price of a new dress or waited to the point of despair for someone to arrive will find an ally in Julie O'Callaghan's Two Barks. Whether writing a narrative poem about the pleasures and terrors of being home alone or a short lyric about a nasty asteroid, Julie O'Callaghan's poems are devastatingly accurate and hugely entertaining. As Matthew Sweeney wrote of her previous collection for children, Taking My Pen for a Walk (Orchard Books, 1988): 'This is a book which will do missionary work for poetry, a book to leave out for babysitters and know they'll read it.' Equally, Two Barks is a book which babysitters will leave out for parents, knowing they will find it as enlightening as it is irresistible. Illustrated by Martin Fish