"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Monday, October 17, 2022

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

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