WHISPER AND SHOUT

Vecchione follows her very successful anthology Truth and Lies (2000) with a smart collection of poetry for slightly younger readers. In her introduction, she explains that knowing a poem can fill all sorts of needs, just shortening a trip or remembering a special time. She suggests that there are poems to keep to oneself and poems to recite to one’s friends, loud poems and quiet ones, funny or sad, each with its own virtues. Then she gives some tips on how to memorize—whether the piece has a rhyme or not—and what to listen for as you read. There’s something for everyone here, whether from Wordplay or from the Poems about Life, the Natural World, or those that are just plain funny. There’s hardly a poet who isn’t represented somewhere along the way: Langston Hughes to Shel Silverstein, e.e. cummings to Emily Dickinson. Others include Carl Sandburg, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Theodore Roethke, May Swenson, Paul Fleischman, and, yes, William Shakespeare. There are traditional rhymes like “I love you little, I love you lots”; familiar anonymous ones like “I saw Esau” or “Whether the weather be fine . . .”; and riddles, limericks, and a Cherokee prayer. Some poets who might have been fun are missing: Karla Kuskin, for instance, and not enough newer poets are represented—Naomi Shihab Nye, Marilyn Singer, or Janet S. Wong. But still, this is a great start and at 50 or so selections, not so overwhelming that a reader couldn’t find something—or several somethings—right off. Biographical resources include choices for further reading of each poet. A keeper. (Poetry. 9-12)