From the sonorant and strange to the profound and challenging, the poems and paintings collected here are sure to capture...
A gorgeous collection of poems selected with commitment to memory in mind.
Though the author of a few best-sellers on such adult topics as politics and constitutional law, Kennedy continues to carve a name for herself as an anthologist. She teams up here again with Caldecott Honoree Jon J Muth (A Family of Poems, 2005) to present over 100 poems and accompanying illustrations aimed at introducing children to the pleasures of memorization. Unlike other contemporary anthologies with similar ambitions, whose forgettable contents seem picked out of a hat, Kennedy’s selection radiates diversity with purpose. Grouped thematically on popular verse topics—the self, nature, war, family, friendship, etc.—each of the collection’s works offers a distinctive place of attachment for readers. Light, early-20th-century pieces like A.A. Milne’s “Disobedience” and Ogden Nash’s “The Parent” (“Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, / And that’s what parents were created for”) shine just as brightly as newer nonsensical gems, such as Jack Prelutsky’s delectably gross “Herbert Glerbett” and Neal Levin’s hilarious “Baby Ate a Microchip.” Dark and contemplative subjects fare just as well in selections such as “When he was small, when he would fall,” Vladimir Nabokov’s powerful comparison of a childhood stumble to death in battle, and Wallace Stevens’ “The Snow Man,” as breathtaking in its portrait of winter as it is bleak in its meditation on nothingness. As if Kennedy’s rich poetic finds weren’t enough to hook adventurous youngsters, Muth’s shadowy, evocative watercolors render submission inevitable.
From the sonorant and strange to the profound and challenging, the poems and paintings collected here are sure to capture readers of any age. (Poetry. 3 & up)Pub Date: March 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-0805-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Sure to have readers booking their own trips to catch the next brief but memorable solar eclipse.
A total solar eclipse brings a father and son closer together.
After learning in school about the eclipse’s impending arrival, a curious young boy excitedly figures out the best time and place to see it. His father agrees to transport him to the woods to view the eclipse, and the child describes everything that happens at various points—two months before the eclipse, then a month, a week, a day, an hour, a minute, and the exciting second before the sun slips behind the moon. Time seems to stand still, and the creatures in the woods are baffled by what appears to be an early nightfall. Then the countdown begins again, with the boy describing what happens after the eclipse—one second, one minute, one hour, one day, one year, and even longer. The moment has become a shared memory that enhances the bond between father and son and inspires future eclipse-chasing expeditions. Based on the author’s actual experience with his own son in 2017, this picture book features lively, child-friendly digital artwork filled with scenes of nature, matter-of-fact text that acknowledges the awesomeness of this rare phenomenon, and useful maps that chart the solar eclipse of 2017 and projected paths for future eclipses. Father and son are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sure to have readers booking their own trips to catch the next brief but memorable solar eclipse. (more information on eclipses) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781338608823
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Sage, soothing ideas for a busy, loud, sometimes-divisive world.
In an inviting picture book, Chelsea and Hillary Clinton share personal revelations on how gardening with a grandmother, a mother, and children shapes and nurtures a love and respect for nature, beauty, and a general philosophy for life.
Grandma Dorothy, the former senator, secretary of state, and presidential candidate’s mother, loved gardens, appreciating the multiple benefits they yielded for herself and her family. The Clinton women reminisce about their beloved forebear and all she taught them in a color-coded, alternating text, blue for Chelsea and green for Hillary. Via brief yet explicit remembrances, they share what they learned, observed, and most of all enjoyed in gardens with her. Each double-page spread culminates in a declarative statement set in italicized red text invoking Dorothy’s wise words. Gardens can be many things: places for celebration, discovery and learning, vehicles for teaching responsibility in creating beauty, home to wildlife large and small, a place to share stories and develop memories. Though operating from very personal experience rooted in class privilege, the mother-daughter duo mostly succeeds in imparting a universally significant message: Whether visiting a public garden or working in the backyard, generations can cultivate a lasting bond. Lemniscates uses an appropriately floral palette to evoke the gardens explored by these three white women. A Spanish edition, Los jardines de la abuela, publishes simultaneously; Teresa Mlawer’s translation is fluid and pleasing, in at least one case improving on the original.
Sage, soothing ideas for a busy, loud, sometimes-divisive world. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11535-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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