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MY OWN SONG

Name: MY OWN SONG
Author: Michael R. Strickland
ISBN: 1-56397-686-2

AND OTHER POEMS TO GROOVE TO

edited by Michael R. Strickland & illustrated by Eric Sabee ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1997

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Strickland's second anthology of poems about music (Poems That Sing to You, 1993) contains 51 selections, including 6 of his own and 10 from some of the publisher's other authors. Most of the selections address singing, dancing, and playing instruments, but some (Shakespeare's ``Sonnet 130'') use music as only one of many images surrounding an entirely different subject. The scratchboard illustrations (reproduced in murky black-and-white) point to a young audience, but the book will be more useful as a resource for teachers, since the poems range in accessibility from Eleanor Farjeon's ``Music'' (``Can you dance? I love to dance!'') to William Blake's ``How sweet I roam'd from field to field,'' and some enigmatic work by Edvidge Giunta and Lisa Bahlinger. While there is much here that is first-rate, e.g., James Weldon Johnson's ``O Black and Unknown Bards,'' there is also a great deal that is unremarkable. The graceless design has three ill-assorted typefaces per page (four, when italics are used), blocks of text plunked down without regard for balance between type and leading, poems set almost into the gutter, and long pieces crammed on to one page. This is an uneven set of variations, poorly presented, on a marvelous theme. (Poetry. 9- 11)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997

ISBN: 1-56397-686-2

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

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A CHILD'S CALENDAR

by John Updike ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1999

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Updike has revised a set of 12 short poems, one per month, first published in 1965, and Hyman’s busy, finely detailed scenes replace the original edition’s illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. The verses are written in a child’s voice—“The chickadees/Grow plump on seed/That Mother pours/Where they can feed”—and commemorate seasonal weather, flowers, food, and holidays. In the paintings a multiracial, all-ages cast does the same in comfortable, semi-rural New England surroundings, sitting at a table cutting out paper hearts, wading through reeds with a net under a frog’s watchful eye, picnicking, contemplating a leafless tree outside for “November” and a decorated one inside for “December.” The thoughts and language are slightly elevated but not beyond the ken of children, and the pictures enrich the poetry with specific, often amusing, incidents. (Poetry. 6-10)

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999

ISBN: 0-8234-1445-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
A HELPFUL ALPHABET OF FRIENDLY OBJECTS
by John Updike & photographed by David Updike

- BOOK REVIEW
MAGIC FLUTE
by John Updike

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A BIRD OR TWO

A STORY ABOUT HENRI MATISSE

by Bijou Le Tord ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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Less a story than an analysis of Matisse’s art, particularly after his move to Nice, this companion to A Blue Butterfly (1995), on Monet, also combines visual recasting of selected works with poetic commentary: “To his color palette he added the bluest sapphire blue he could imagine. And with it he painted the Mediterranean Sea.” Using a free style of brushwork that evokes Matisse’s own joy and energy, Le Tord alternates her versions of his art with scenes of the man himself, always nattily dressed, always industriously making art. This perceptive personal tribute will enhance readers’ appreciation for Matisse’s work; they won’t mind going elsewhere for biographical details, and reproductions of his actual paintings, sculpture, and collages. (Picture book. 8-11)