Many thousands of pupils have developed a love of poetry through the classic Touchstones series. Now this bestselling Key Stage 3 anthology - celebrating its 40th anniversary - has been completely updated to meet the demands of today's classroom and the 2008 National Curriculum.

Touchstones Now contains a rich selection of poetry, ranging from Chaucer to modern-day poets, including many unusual and thought-provoking pieces together with much-loved favourites.

The unique structure of the anthology enables pupils to examine how differing poetic constructs work as well as exploring poetic themes and studying individual poets. Many of the popular features of other Benton anthologies such as Picture Poems and Painting with Words are integrated into this new edition.

This book is suitable for Key Stage 3. KS3 covers school years 7, 8 and 9, and ages 12-14 years. A key stage is any of the fixed stages into which the national curriculum is divided, each having its own prescribed course of study. At the end of each stage, pupils are required to complete standard assessment tasks. This book is aimed at children in secondary school.

There are 264 pages in this book. This book was published 2008 by Hodder Education .

Michael Benton is a highly respected author of Britain's leading poetry anthologies for schools including the 'New Touchstones' series and three books on paintings and poems - 'Double Vision', 'Painting With Words' and 'Picture Poems'. He is a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Southampton. Dr Peter Benton is a highly respected author of Britain's leading poetry anthologies for schools including the 'New Touchstones' series and three books on paintings and poems - 'Double Vision', 'Painting With Words' and 'Picture Poems'. He is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford University. Professor Mike Benton is head of the Earth Sciences department at the University of Bristol. Specializing in dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, Professor Benton has written and contributed to a large number of titles on these subjects, for both children and adults.

This book has the following chapters:

• : Part A Ten Units
• : Unit 1 Playing With Words
• : Unit 2 Making Your Own Notes
• : Unit 3 Making Word-Pictures
• : Unit 4 Comparisons
• : Unit 5 Rhythm and Movement
• : Unit 6 Sound and Movement
• : Unit 7 Patterns on the Page
• : Unit 8 Ballads
• : Unit 9 Word Pictures and Ideas
• : Unit 10 Mixed Feelings
• : Part B Ten Themes
• : Unit 1 Seasons
• : Unit 2 Nonsense and Stuff
• : Unit 3 Magic and Mystery
• : Unit 4 Stories
• : Unit 5 Ballads
• : Unit 6 Creatures
• : Unit 7 School
• : Unit 8 Me 1
• : Unit 9 You
• : Unit 10 Poems and Paintings
• : Part C Ten poets
• : Unit 1 Geoffrey Chaucer
• : Unit 2 William Shakespeare
• : Unit 3 John Clare
• : Unit 4 Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• : Unit 5 Christina Rossetti
• : Unit 6 D. H Lawrence
• : Unit 7 Ted Hughes
• : Unit 8 John Agard
• : Unit 9 Charles Causley
• : Unit 10 Grace Nichols