Reviews: Three fantastic poetry books for everyone including young children

 

Three delightful children's picture poetry books which will delight all ages.

Take Off Your Brave: The World Through the Eyes of a Preschool Poet

Poems by Nadim (Age 4)

First published in the UK in 2021, in the US by Candlewick Press, 2022

In 2020 Nadim brought home a poem from school. He and his mum sat and talked about it and what makes up a poem. Nadim wanted to write one but didn't know w a topic. His mother told him he could write about anything. "For example," she asked, "what did you take off when you came home from school?" Nadim listed physical things but when she asked him if there was anything else, Nadim thought for a moment then replied, "You take off your brave." And a poetry project was born. Now Nadim's younger sister and his preschool class have even contributed to it. 

 

The poems are all darling, or at least have a darling aspect to them. In "Love", the first poem of the collection, Nadim starts with the line Everyone has to have someone and ends with Everyone has love / Even baddies.

 

 

 

Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiku

By Sally Walker

 

Candlewick Press, 2022

 

"In a perfect union of art and science, Sally Walker uses her nonfiction writing skills to explore space through haiku accompanied by narrative explanations of the wonders of the universe beyond our atmosphere" (Publisher).

 

The illustrations by Matthew Trueman help the reader and listener to imagine these spectacular views.

 

The Universe Begins

 

one minuscule speck

grows into the universe

a mind-boggling birth

 

 

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water 

by Nikole Hannah-James and Renee Watson

 

Koklia, 2022

 

When a student receives a family tree assignment and can only trace back three generations, Grandma gathers the whole family together, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America as slaves. But before that they had a home, a land, a language. She learned about how the people said to be born of the water survived and how they planted new dreams and hopes, learned new words for love, friends, family, joy, and home. This book should be required reading for everyone, young and old alike.

 

They Had a Language

 

They spoke Kimbundu,

had their own words

for love

for friends

for family.

-Anne