Title: The Google Song and other rhymes for our times
Description: This collection of poems features the twelve pieces—some of them with revisions—comprising *The Google Song and other poems for children (& other folks, too)* which won First Prize in the category Poetry Written for Children, Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature 2009. It was the first time the category was included in this annual literary competition. These twelve poems are *The Google Song, The Eye in the Sky, We’ve Gone Around the Distant Moon, Colors, Creatures, I Saw a Bridge to China, Street Child, The Running Girl, Tsunami, Nature’s Lament, Nerdy Perdy*, and *Planting Rice*. Double years below the poems indicate dates of the original and revised versions.

Some other poems have been included in this collection because they address issues which the author thinks could also be of interest to both young and old readers. These are *The Limbo Song, A Mythical Couple from Long, Long Ago, My Boom Town Warát, 9 Haiku on the Iraq War*, and *Seasons and Blossoms*. 
	
A *Reader’s Guide* is included at the end of the book. This is made up of background notes, which try to explain the sources for the ideas or the stories that inspired the poet to write these pieces. Most of these poems were written in a playful spirit, although they may be talking about some serious stuff. I wanted to introduce young readers to certain issues about history, politics, science, religion, nature and the environment, in a way that’s not too heavy, but at the same time might also appeal to older readers.

***What other writers say of this book (blurbs on the back cover):*** 

Move over, Dr. Seuss, and make room for a Filipino poet for children.  The illustrated The Google Song and other rhymes for our times by Ed Maranan will certainly delight young readers as well as adults who may recall Ogden Nash or Roald Dahl known for light humorous verse for readers of all ages.  What is remarkable is that Ed Maranan, like the poets above, manages to entertain children who love funny rhymes and wordplay, and to make them appreciate serious issues about society, nature, and the cosmos, with helpful guides at the end of the attractively designed book. An excellent read for all seasons.—**DR. ELMER A. ORDOÑEZ**, professor of literature, critic, author, and literary editor of The Manila Times

Are all poems written for children necessarily constrained by vocabulary or concept? These poems show none of that. Instead they engage, they stretch, they play, as in this piece of the poem Tsunami: "With the speed of the wind / It cuts down the trees / Carries off houses / Drowns prayers and pleas." Ed Maranan brings craftsmanship, experience, mind and heart together in this set of poems.—**MAILIN PATERNO-LOCSIN**, prize-winning author, English teacher, and Head of School at Beacon Academy 

In The Google Song and other rhymes for our times, Maranan gives us a lyrical playground that is delightful, whimsical and truthful.  "Like an 'Open Sesame!' / That shows so many wonders...,", we encounter a magical eye that "peers at the farthest stars"; we go around the distant moon to "the darkest spaces of the heart"; we see a bridge to China, and fat rats in the boom town of Warát.  This is a treasure trove of enchanting, well-crafted and nature-friendly poems, from a Master Poet, for children of all ages.—**AILEEN IBARDALOZA-CASSINETTO**, poet, author of Traje de Boda, and associate editor of Our Own Voice Literary Ezine 

Prizewinning poet and word-magician Ed Maranan adds one more face to his masque of talents by giving us, and the kids in us, The Google Song and Other Rhymes for Our Times. This child-size collection of less than twenty poems takes us kids on a whirligig tour of a veritable World Wide Web of verse and spellbinding knowledge. Wide-eyed at the feast of textures and figurative colors (the book is richly illustrated in black-and-white) we zoom and swing through the lush habitats of the tarsier and butanding, the civet and the pangolin, and the farthest reaches where we could hear “the beat of pounding pulsars… the rhumbas of the novas.” All the while we are not spared from the harsh realities of “My Boom Town of Warát” and the Iraq War. Whatever mask he wears, whatever lens he looks through (rose-colored, battle goggles, or Space Hubble), Ed Maranan can be trusted to use his poet’s unfailing eye.—**MARNE KILATES**, Editor, The Electronic Monsoon Magazine, www.electronicmonsoon.com