Posted on by TracyC

A Child’s First Book of Poems

A Child’s First Book of Poems with pictures by Cyndy Szekeres, 1981.

I think this actually might have been my first book of poetry. At least, I’ve had it since I was a fairly young child, and I can’t remember reading any other book of poetry before this one. If I had an earlier book of poetry, it was probably a book of Mother Goose rhymes.

The poems in the book are about a variety of topics and some of them are by famous people and were popular poems for decades before this book was published. Among the authors whose poems appear in this book are Emily Dickinson, A.A. Milne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Among my favorite poems in the book:

Wild Beasts by Evaleen Stein – About children pretending to be animals.
Choosing by Eleanor Farjeon – About choosing between various nice things.
Hiding by Dorothy Aldis – A child hides while his parents search for him. My mother often quoted from this poem when we were kids and she was looking for one of us. “I’m hiding, I’m hiding, and no one knows where …”
The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson – I think of this poem whenever I’m on a swing.
Bedtime by Eleanor Farjeon – Children making excuses to stay up later.

The pictures really make this book special. They are all drawn in a realistic style. Some just show ordinary children and animals, but some contain whimsical elements, like animals wearing clothes, depending on the poem.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Ten Little Rabbits

Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia Grossman and Sylvia Long, 1991.

This picture book is loosely based on the Ten Little Indians counting rhyme, but with a twist. Instead of “Ten Little Indians,” it’s ten little rabbits. The rabbits in the pictures are dressed in traditional costumes from different Native American tribes. Also, unlike in some versions of the Ten Little Indians rhyme, none of the characters are eliminated during the course of the rhyme. The rhyme simply counts upward from one to ten.

The pictures are beautiful and detailed, and they do a good job of showing the rabbits in the poses of humans.

The book intentionally shows the rabbits acting out aspects of traditional Native American culture. Very young children might not fully appreciate what the book is trying to depict, but there is a special section in the back that explains which tribes the rabbits are supposed to belong to and what they are doing in the pictures.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Dragons Are Singing Tonight

The Dragons Are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Peter Sis, 1993.

This is a picture book of poems about dragons, but that description doesn’t quite do the book justice.

Jack Prelutsky is best known for his books of humorous poems for children, but not all of the poems in this book are funny. Some of them are humorous or have humorous twists, but others are just about the magic and wonder of the idea of dragons, some of which only exist in the imagination. Sometimes, just believing in magic or imagining it can be magical by itself!

The pictures are all excellent, colorful, and fanciful, and they really bring the poems to life. The book is larger than average, and the pictures span full pages.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Coconut Kind of Day

Coconut Kind of Day: Island Poems by Lynn Joseph, illustrated by Sandra Speidel, 1990.

The author’s note in the back of the book explains that the author was originally from Trinidad and that she wrote this book of poems about some of the things that remembers from growing up there.  She also explains some of the terms used in the poems that people who aren’t familiar with Trinidad might not know:

Palet man – Ice-cream man who sells ice cream on sticks, like popsicles (I knew this one because I’m used to the Spanish word “paletero” from growing up in Arizona.)

Soursop – A type of fruit often used as an ice cream flavor

Pullin’ seine – When the fishermen start pulling in their nets, and other people help.

Jumbi man – A bogey man.  It’s popular for people to dress in a Jumbi costume at Carnival time.

Sorrel – A plant used in making a drink around Christmas

The poems are mostly about small, everyday things, like going to school or to the market or how the children play together or get ice cream from the palet man.

There is one poem where the girls want to play cricket with the boys, but the boys won’t let them, and they decide that when they’re older, they’ll have a cricket team of their own.

The pictures are beautiful, done in an impressionistic style.

Posted on by TracyC

Tortillas Para Mama

Tortillas Para Mama selected and translated by Margot C. Griego, Betsy L. Bucks, Sharon S. Gilbert, and Laurel H. Kimball, illustrated by Barbara Cooney, 1981.

This is a collection of Spanish lullabies and nursery rhymes in the Americas.  The introduction to the book explains how these traditional rhymes have been passed down through the generations of families.  They are not specific to any one country, more generally known where there are Spanish speakers. The rhymes are in both in English and Spanish.

Like children’s rhymes everywhere, they are about small, everyday things, like family, animals, cooking, and other things people do every day, like helping little kids to get dressed.

There are rhymes and songs that involve counting on fingers or making hand motions.

My favorite is the lullaby Los Pollitos (The Chicks), which I first heard when I was little through Kidsongs. I always liked that song.

The illustrations, paintings by Barbara Cooney, are beautiful.  Some people may recognize the art style from her other works like Miss Rumphius and Roxaboxen.

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The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom

jeremybloomThe D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom by Gordon Korman and Bernice Korman, 1992.

This book is mostly a collection of funny poems, but there is an overarching story to them.  Jeremy Bloom, a typical middle school slacker, wanted to sign up for the easiest elective course he possibly could.  But, by accident, he overslept on the first day of school, and by the time he got there, sign-ups had already started and the easiest and most popular electives were full.  Desperately trying to find something easy and with as little work possible under the remaining electives, Jeremy decided to sign up for Pottery. (“It was no Snooze Patrol, but how hard could it be to make ashtrays?”)  Only, he made another mistake and accidentally signed up for Poetry, and once he was enrolled, there was no way out of it.  He was committed to spending a year writing poetry.

jeremybloompoemJeremy tries to make the best of things, but somehow (partly through his own fault and partly by accident), he continually manages to do things to annoy his poetry teacher, Ms. Terranova (or, as the kids call her, Ms. Pterodactyl, thanks to a mistake Jeremy made when he said her name on the first day of class).  Every single poem Jeremy writes during the year receives the same grade: D-.  The book is divided into different periods of Jeremy’s work, along with an explanation about what Jeremy did during each period to tick off his teacher.  At the end, the reader can be the judge: Are Jeremy’s D- grades because he’s a terrible poet or because his teacher is mad at Jeremy for everything else he does during the year?  (The answer is pretty obvious.)

My favorite poems are the longer ones like “Why I Was Late,” “The Wheeler-Dealer,” and “No Boring Parts Allowed.”  Just to give you an idea of what the poems are like (although they are written in a variety of styles), here’s another one of my favorites, “Honesty Is Not Always the Best Policy.”

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.