PIPING DOWN THE VALLEYS WILD

Funny rhymes and minor rhythms, even some substantial poems, mostly by contemporary children's poets. Kids do like them--you'll recognize almost every one from other collections. Despite the introductory claim for urban relevance, they deal with lots of things a city child never sees or feels but there are traffic lights and trains and Langston Hughes in addition to ducks and pastures, and much that children anywhere can enjoy: fairies, holidays, animals (elephants ""holding hands by holding tails""), and other aspects of nature--wind, rain, sun. The poems are arranged in small undesignated clusters, the subjects--from various (and sometimes too many) approaches--changing in no apparent order, although without jeopardizing the tone. They range from the camp memory of ""Eat-it-all-Elaine to the hushed dignity of William Carlos Williams: ""As the cat/ climbed over/ the top of/ the jamcloset/ first the right/ forefoot/ carefully/ then the hind/ stepped down/ into the pit of/ the empty/ flowerpot.