A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by T. Lewis and Sara Gutierrez, 1989.

This is a reprinting of the classic collection of children’s poems by Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1885 as Penny Whistles. What makes this edition of the book different from other printings is the illustrations, which are an unusual combination of watercolors and embroidered borders. Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Tree House series wrote an introduction to the book about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson and his youth in Scotland in the 1850s, which inspired his poems for children. (See my list of Books from 1850s for the types of books children were reading during this time period, but remember that they also would have read books that were published in previous decades.)

The poems have gentle themes from the lives and fantasies of children, like games of pretend, bedtimes, and the little things that children notice and that adults often take for granted, like shadows and the beauty of stars. Some of them have things that are now anachronistic, like lamplighters, but they’re still imaginative and enjoyable for all ages.

I’ve always liked Robert Louis Stevenson’s children’s poems, and this book has my favorites! My personal favorites are:

To Any Reader – Robert Louis Stevenson speaks to children reading these poems about the child he used to be and how the poems are like a window on his childhood, although his own youth is long gone.
Escape at Bedtime – About a child who sneaks out of bed at night to look at the stars.
The Swing – I mentioned this one before because it’s included in another collection of poems, and I’ve often thought of it when I’ve been on swings.
Picture Books in Winter – A child enjoys picture books indoors when it’s cold outside.
The Land of Storybooks – About the adventures that children who love books enjoy in their imaginations.

However, my mother’s favorite children’s poem is Bed in Summer because it reminds her of her own childhood and having to go to bed while the sun was still shining in summer and other children in the neighborhood were still playing outside. (I didn’t have this experience when I was growing up because I never lived in a place that had daylight savings time, which changes the clocks by one hour, providing an extra hour of daylight before sunset. Arizona is very hot, so there’s a benefit for doing things after the sun has set, and few people have any interest in pushing back time to maximize the scorchingly hot daylight hours. My childhood memories include going to parks with my parents after the sun set and being put to bed after we got home.)

There are many copies of this book available in various printings online both at Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg because the text of the original book is now public domain. I didn’t see this particular printing with these illustrations available online, but if you just want to read the poems, there are plenty of other copies of the book to choose from!