A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children
Starred Review.Grade 2 Up–From the cover photograph of Kennedy as a toddler reading to her teddy to the red linen-textured endpapers; from her thoughtful introduction and words of encouragement to children at the beginning of each section of carefully chosen poems to Muth's beautifully executed watercolors, this volume is a treasure. In compiling the collection, Kennedy passes on her own family's tradition of creating a scrapbook of poems chosen by the children in lieu of gifts to their mother and grandparents. Divided by topic into seven sections, the collection is, indeed, a treasury of beloved poems written in a variety of styles by poets from many lands and generations, some more familiar than others, some unknown. Most of the soft-focus illustrations fill whole pages. The wide variety of artistic styles–ethereal, realistic, comical, energetic, sweet, romantic–matches the mood of the poems themselves. The 10 translated selections appear at the end of the volume in their original languages. This well-balanced anthology should be a first purchase for school and public libraries. Recommend it as a gift book for parents to share with their children, as well.–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.