161. A Child's First Book of Poems

A Child's First Book of Poems with pictures by Cyndy Szekeres

Pages: 44
Ages: 3+
Finished: Sep.2, 2009
First Published: 1981
Genre: children, poetry
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

An elephant's nose is the handiest nose, the handiest nose of all -

Reason for Reading: I read a poem or 2 to my son every day M-F.

Comments: This is a cute little book. Of course, wonderfully illustrated with Szekers' darling pictures which mostly feature animals both realistically and anthropomorphically, but there is the occasional real boy or girl. The poems are suitable for all ages but have been chosen for their simplicity so that even the youngest ears will appreciate the rhythms and words. Though this is no baby book, there are no nursery rhymes, no mother goose to be found here. What we have is a collection of the wonderful children's poets such as Aileen Fisher, A.A. Milne, Eleanor Farjeon, Dorothy Aldis and Christina Rossetti alongside a few of the greats: Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Walter de la Mare. Plus, our good friend Anonymous shows his hand maybe twice. A well thought out collection; we read a lot of poetry collections and there were many new-to-us poems found here. Of course, there were a handful of the famous ones but it was nice to see a collection of some lesser known poems as well. An enjoyable read for all ages. A great introduction to poetry for children.



Visit my 10yo niece's new movie blog and leave a comment. Thanks!