A BOY of seven took a poetry book home from a Poole school only to discover it contained foul and sexually explicit language.

Kieran Dartnall was told to choose a book to take home and read so he selected Neil Philip's Best Loved Poems as it had a picture of the Owl and the Pussycat on the front.

When he got home he showed it to mum Babs who was shocked when she thumbed through the pages.

One poem, Philip Larkin's famous This Be The Verse, begins with the line "They f*** you up, your mum and dad."

Another piece of prose called I Like My Body When It Is With Your Body spoke of a person kissing their partner's body again and again.

Two more pieces of work described two people killing themselves while another told of a drunk vomiting.

Babs, 40, of Parkstone Heights, Poole, confiscated the book from Kieran before he got to read it and then phoned the school to complain.

She said: "I was horrified that this sort of material was available for kids in a first school.

"I could possibly understand it in a secondary school but it is totally inappropriate for a child of seven.

"I would have been livid had he read it. Some of its is filth."

Kieran is in year three at the Stanley Green First School in Poole.

Babs said: "He came home from school with it to help him with his reading.

"He said all the children were asked to pick a book in class and he chose that one because it has got the Owl and the Pussycat on the front cover.

"It looked innocent enough but luckily I flicked through it with him and was gobsmacked by some of the poems. I took it off him straight away.

"He is quite a good reader and he would have come across some of this stuff and taken it in.

"I called the school to complain and they have asked for the book back before deciding on what to do."

John Nash, spokesman for Poole council's children's services, apologised for the incident and said the book would be withdrawn from the school.

He said: "A year three pupil was able to choose a book to take home to read.

"That book was totally inappropriate for his age group and should not have been available.

"The school concerned has since reviewed its book stock and borrowing arrangements to ensure that this does not happen again.

"No other pupils were involved and the school has apologised most sincerely to the parent."