Why is itThe roustabout Rooster, raging at the dawnWakes us so early?A warrior king is on fire!His armour is all crooked daggers and scimitarsAnd 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).