A heartfelt collection which is both touching and funny in places, and rings true throughout - First Rhyme Mom is a collection of poems about pregnancy and the first year of motherhood. Each poem is fairly short (averaging maybe 4-6 verses) and deals quite concisely with a particular aspect of being a first time mother.

I don’t read a lot of poetry but I found this an enjoyable read, especially the second half of the book, covering the mother’s experiences in the months after giving birth. There were several moments that had me fondly recalling my own days as the parent of a new-born baby, which is really what I hoped for from this book.

I would say the author’s sense of humour, love for her child, and observational powers are the work’s greatest assets, perhaps above what might consider the classic poetic requirements regarding meter and structure. As such, I would recommend the book to parents (or parents-to-be) who like a bit of poetry, more than I would to general fans of poetry as an art form, on whom the best qualities of this book might be lost.

The short length of the poems actually make the collection ideal for a new parent, struggling to find more than a few minutes at a time for reading – and this lack of spare time is one of the subjects covered in the book.

I should add that reading First Rhyme Mom did make me feel inclined to read a bit more poetry in the future, which is an endorsement in itself. Why not give it a try?