“And all shall behold the seasons unfold” in this beautiful volume celebrating nature and verse in its most splendid...
With a keen and sensitive eye, a young English girl explores the Devon countryside.
A scrapbook is the perfect design element for the tale, as Pippa, on a visit to her aunt, shares her favorite pastimes: walking, horseback riding and poetry. Her first-person narration is on notebook paper in cursive writing, while the poetry selections are in old-fashioned Times New Roman. These range from traditional rhymes to a medley of English-language poets writing about cows, lambs and meadow mice, among other topics. Ted Hughes, William Butler Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare and John Tams, who wrote the songs for the stage production of War Horse, are among the poets represented. A festive and traditional May Day celebration concludes the day’s activities for Pippa. Gill’s mixed-media artwork features delicately nuanced paintings and sketches of local animals, trees and flowers, allowing readers to see them in close-up detail through Pippa’s eyes, along with the old churches, villages and fields that she slowly passes. Occasional flaps, gatefolds and transparent pages enhance the striking presentation. This is a first collaboration for the former English children’s laureate and his wife; all royalties benefit their charity, Farms for City Children.
“And all shall behold the seasons unfold” in this beautiful volume celebrating nature and verse in its most splendid quietude. (afterword, poetry index) (Poetry/fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6629-3
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Another winning collaboration from two luminaries.
Janeczko and Raschka reunite for a fourth anthology, featuring poems spanning two millennia.
The unifying conceit—all the poems focus on objects—has a grounding effect, helping readers perceive linkages among the poets across centuries. As Janeczko observes in a pithy introduction, poems are grouped within nine sections named for major periods of Western cultural history, such as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Nonetheless, he “could not ignore the strong poems…found from Eastern poets.” The 13th-century Persian poet Rumi observes a candle, “made to become entirely flame.” Seventeenth-century Japanese master Basho muses, “Midnight frost— / I’d borrow / the scarecrow’s shirt.” Twelve women are represented, including Phillis Wheatley, Christina Rossetti and Sylvia Plath. Some poems are famous: William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow” is here, as well as Robert Burns’ “A Red, Red Rose.” Less familiar choices are poignant, even cheeky: John Updike’s “Lament, for Cocoa” rues, “The scum has come. / My cocoa’s cold.” Raschka’s playful watercolors on crisp, white backgrounds distill both images and emotions from the poems. In “The Cat and the Moon,” he visually parallels William Butler Yeats’ lines, the cat’s eyes echoing the crescent moon’s shape. The white goose of Cui Tu’s “A Solitary Wildgoose” appears throughout, flying alone until uniting with a flock on the back endpapers.
Another winning collaboration from two luminaries. (acknowledgements) (Picture book/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6963-8
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
While the author is otherwise quite respectful toward this beloved black poet, as many grandmas of various races and...
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s words serve as a cornerstone for much of black literature and everyday lit-dropping conversations among black folks. But when they cross the color line….
Veteran author Derby has her heart in the right place. She states that she wanted to write a biography about Dunbar, with whom she shares the hometown of Dayton, Ohio, “for years.” Giving her narrator a “grandma voice,” the author molds the poet’s life story around his allusive verses. She explains his understanding why the caged bird sings when he takes a job as an elevator operator because the Dayton Herald refused to hire him due to their racist employment practices and Dunbar’s racial “mask” after working as Frederick Douglass’ personal assistant, and she covers his rising popularity as a correspondent and poet. What’s unfortunate is that the narrator’s affectation—from using variations of “jump back,” “honey,” and “ ’bout” to “scoot back,” “mama,” and “hmph”—makes readers wonder how the author envisioned the grandmother, specifically her race. Dialect is tricky, and well-intended voice can backfire, especially for parents of black children seeking books for them.
While the author is otherwise quite respectful toward this beloved black poet, as many grandmas of various races and ethnicities would say, it’s not what’s said but how it’s said. (timeline, source notes, selected bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6070-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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