|
|
A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children (Hardcover) (Hardcover)
by Caroline Kennedy
| Category:
Poetry, Ages 4-8, Children's book |
| Market price: ¥ 218.00
MSL price:
¥ 208.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A treasury of beloved poems written in a variety of styles by poets from many lands and generations. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
Detail |
Author |
Description |
Excerpt |
Reviews |
|
|
|
Author: Caroline Kennedy
Publisher: Hyperion
Pub. in: September, 2005
ISBN: 0786851112
Pages: 144
Measurements: 10.2 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00074
Other information:
|
|
Rate this product:
|
|
- MSL Picks -
Caroline Kennedy's excellent new anthology (illustrated by Jon J. Muth) is an excellent book. The editor shows great respect for children by choosing real poems and including Edward Lear, A.A. Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter de la Mare - the first-class poets for children.
Kennedy also includes Emily Dickinson's " 'Hope' is the thing with feathers," Thomas Hardy's "Snow in the Suburbs," Wordsworth's "Daffodils," Shakespeare's song for Ariel, William Blake's "The Tyger," Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish," Marianne Moore's "A Jelly-Fish," Theodore Roethke's "The Sloth," and William Butler Yeats's "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," along with good jokes by the likes of Dylan Thomas and Sylvia Plath and even Wallace Stevens's "The Emperor of Ice-Cream." Also, Antonio Machado's "Has My Heart Gone to Sleep," translated by Alan S. Trueblood:
Has my heart gone to sleep?
Have the beehives of my dreams
stopped working, the waterwheel
of the mind run dry,
scoops turning empty,
only shadow inside?
No, my heart is not asleep.
It is awake, wide awake.
Not asleep, not dreaming -
its eyes are opened wide
watching distant signals, listening
on the rim of the vast silence.
The editor even includes, in an appendix, the text of this and all translated poems in their original languages.
Kennedy intelligently avoids (mostly) the cloying or over-ingratiating contemporary juvenile authors and includes good, sound, anonymous nonsense such as:
Moses
Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
But Moses supposes erroneously;
For nobody's toeses are posies of roses
As Moses supposes his toeses to be.
Also included are some good folk-sick-jokes, for example:
Careless Willie
Willie with a thirst for gore
Nailed his sister to the door
Mother said with humor quaint
"Careful, Willie, don't scratch the paint!"
Kennedy deserves credit for recognizing William Hughes Mearns with his famous four lines often supposed to be anonymous:
The Little Man
Who Wasn't There
As I was going up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd stay away.
The book charmingly includes the Lord's Prayer along with Lewis Carroll's "The Crocodile," a parody that has outlived its original, moralistic target:
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!
Reading such poems next to more ambitious work by Blake and Dickinson illuminates both kinds by making clear the element of song in the great poems and the element of meaning in the nonsense. This book is a gift for the adults who read it to or with children, as well as for the children. That fact is epitomized by the decision to close with Wallace Stevens's great, quiet poem "The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm." "The quiet was part of the meaning," writes Stevens, "part of the mind." The quiet, impish, commanding voice of poetry can be heard in this selection of poems "for" children but - happily - not only for children.
Target readers:
Kids aged up 4
|
|
- Better with -
Better with
Poetry Speaks to Children (Book & CD) (Hardcover)
:
|
|
Customers who bought this product also bought:
|
|
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is the daughter of president John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline. Caroline was three years old when her father became president, and the White House antics of Caroline and her younger brother John Jr. were popular with the press and public alike. Caroline earned her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard) in 1979 and later studied law at Columbia University. She married the designer and businessman Edwin Schlossberg in 1986. They have three children: Rose (b. 1988), Tatiana (b. 1990) and John (b. 1993).
|
|
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, and 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.
|
| View all 5 comments |
Bart King (MSL quote), Portland, Oregon
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Because I have a jaundiced view of celebrity books, I'll admit that I was skeptical about an anthology compiled by Caroline Kennedy. But the fact is that Ms. Kennedy has done an admirable job with this young person's poetry collection. The poets are sometimes unexpected (Sylvia Plath has a charming bedtime poem here that I had never read) and the poems are not necessarily the obvious ones that one would expect to find in a book like this.
There are nonsense rhymes, but they seem to be the best ones; no doggerel here. And as you can see from this review's title, I was especially happy to see one particular poem represented.
|
Betty Dravis (MSL quote), San Jose, CA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Heartfelt thanks to Caroline Kennedy for taking time from her busy schedule to put together this magnificent book. The poetry is mesmerizing, the illustrations delightful.
As a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, I assure you this book will be well-read, yet receive the tender, loving care it deserves.
I plan to buy a few more so that each family can have one to pass down through the generations.
God bless the Kennedys.
|
Sarah Stumpf (MSL quote), Madison, WI USA
<2006-12-28 00:00>
Caroline Kennedy kicks off this anthology by saying that there is "a world of word and feelings that poetry can help us understand" and her comprehensive and creative poem choice sets out to prove this. She collects some really interesting choices, from the "classics" like Robert Frost, Emily Dickenson, the Bible, and ee cummings to many excellent contemporary poems and poets. The book is clearly divided into seven sections: About Me, That's So Silly! Animals, The Seasons, The Seashore, Adventure, and Bedtime that keep the anthology neatly organized. Each section is punctuated by events, stories, and recollections from Kennedy's own life, but they are kept to a minimum so it never feels like a "celebrity book". At the end is a useful index of the first lines of every poem and the non-English poems in their original form.
However this really is not Kennedy's book. It truly belongs to illustrator Jon J Muth, who raises the bar on this anthology beyond a simple collection and into a spectacular emotional experience. His watercolor illustrations are gorgeous in their simplicity, often showing the original pencil sketches through the paint, but with an impressive level of detail, such as the individual buckles on a suitcase the size of a thumb. His illustrations are not always sensual or realistic, often going with the emotional flow of the selected poems and incorporating whimsical abstractions, like a man with a crown made of ice cream cones on his head. Often the text and the paintings work together in brilliant symbiosis, such as in his dark sunset for "These Are the Days When Birds Come Back" or the simple and smudgy peacock feather. His work is also admirable for including so many people of color as a matter of course, and not just for poems by minority authors.
The New York Times calls his work "quietly life changing" and experiencing his complex butterfly wings or glowing Christmas tree or sparklingly translucent jellyfish moves the audience as much as the poems themselves.
|
Misty Swendryck (MSL quote), Ohio
<2006-12-28 00:00>
After reading the first installment (Best loved poems of JKO), I shared many of my favorites with my niece who's barely 10 yrs old. She fell in love with "Annabel Lee" by the great EAP. I was so intrigued by her interest. I then ordered a copy of "A Family of Poems", 2 copies for her and I. The illustrations are magical as well as the words the depict them.
I have found such pleasure in sharing them with my family; I never knew that they would respond with such enthusiasm. I truly believe that these are the things which can bring a family closer. I am so jealous of the fact that my family didn't grow up in this fashion. I will make it a priority to teach my children these works, and let them explore all of the great wonders that are brought to life by them. I want my family to appreciate what words truly mean.
As spoken by Mrs. Kennedy giving a poem is like giving a gift, always read only the greats, and know that poetry can take you so many wonderful places. This is not verbatim, but it is the sentiment that I have taken and shared with all.
I now cannot go to sleep without going through the adventures of these great works.
Thank you Caroline for all the attention you put into collecting such great master pieces.
|
View all 5 comments |
|
|
|
|
