Poetry Books

I am completely crazy about this book and I don't normally read poetry books or books about writing poetry. But as a HS librarian I was trying to find something to help my English teachers who struggle every year to come up with lesson ideas for their poetry units. I struck gold with this book. I actually took six of Wooldridge's ideas and created lesson plans from them which I share with the teachers. For example, I cut up an old wildflower book, laminated the pictures, so that teachers could do an activity about naming plants and then writing poetry about the names. Though I dabble a little in writing my own poetry, I find that I always enjoy following little formulas to help unlock my creative juices. This book has several cute and fun formulas to assist the beginning poets. I highly recommend this book!

This book is not a how to write a poem book. It is how to live your life so that maybe you can write a poem in 6 to 8 years.

Get it! I dare you! This book is awesome! I learn something new every time I pick it up. I love the freedom it promotes in creativity. Buy it!

Over the last few years I've begun to explore my own talent for poetry, and among the books I've read to help me is this one.

I've yet to try the exercises, but just reading the book gives me some food for thought.

Lots of ideas and techniques to try as the spirit moves you.

I confess that I've never been a poetry fan in the past. But thanks to this book, I may very well become one now! I only bought it because Teesha Moore (mixed-media artist, editor of the Art and Life 'zine, and creator of ArtFest) had raved about the author. So I gave this book a try. I'm so glad I did as it has really opened my eyes to what poetry is all about!

Stand back,- said the elephant, -I'm going to sneeze!

I hate to alarm you, But I don't wish to harm you.
My friends, I fear, Its clear, Oh, dear,
You'd better stand back, I'm going to sneeze.-

The tale begins with a representation of an massive elephant standing on his rear legs

The opening page sets up the story line. Instantly each of elephant's neighbors begins to tell elephant precisely why they do not want him to sneeze. The reader meets many of the elephant's friends who are most apprehensive to hear that the elephant is needing to sneeze.

The critters begin to converse, confer, talk about and remind the elephant using child friendly rhythm and rhyme, that he just really must NOT sneeze. "The zebra yelled, "Yipes, You'll blow off my stripes, Plus lots and lots, Of the leopard's spots, And all of the snakes will be tied up in knots!"

Oh no. Not again. The elephant is going to sneeze.

Catastrophe is at hand, the jungle is in pandemonium.

The last time he sneezed; it was dreadful, just dreadful. Why elephant blew all the stripes off the zebra, and all the fur from the bear. He turned the crocodile's nose inside out and blew the stings right off the bees. They had to made due with rose thorns and glue. He even blew all the scales from the fish, and the monkeys out of the trees. Featherless birds were forced to walk south and not fly.

An alligator, and a buffalo, bees, and bear, crocodile, fish, giraffe, and hippopotamus, leopard, mouse, parrot, and snakes, and even the zebra are worried. It is going to be mayhem; if the elephant sneezes.

-Oh, please, Not a sneeze,- Said the bear. -Thats not fair. I declare.

The last time he sneezed he blew off all my hair,

And left me so bare I spent the whole winter in long underwear-
Nothing is so sad as a bear that is bare.-

Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze! was a much loved favorite of both of my own children when they were young as well as for the K - 1 classes I taught in California.

Sad to say, not too many people have even heard of the book. The premise and rhyme are amusing, words flow in cadenced, and lovely tempo that children adore. Images are a brilliant addition to the account.

For years the first book I read to my students, on the first day of the new school term, is Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!

I read it in part because, I just plain like the book. I read it too because; in spite of my being a small person, I have a sneeze that will rattle the windows in the next classroom.

I read the book, and the children and I talk about the absurdity of the tale, and I assure the kids they need not fear ... when I sneeze I will try not to blow off their stripes.

I get pleasure from reading the book as much as the kids enjoy listening to it being read to them. The book is very repetitious leading to children being drawn right into the fun as they talk nineteen to the dozen along with the reader.

Synonyms like bare and bear, and fun observations like 'Bee's Knees are sprinkled into the text.

Following elephant's pronouncement a tiny gray mouse sets about to save the day. Rising up to full height he demands that the sneezing must stop. And within moments the elephant begins to giggle.

Even before turning the page; you just know there must be a consequence when an begins elephant laugh. And so there is. The unexpected ending always has my first graders animated, giggling and ready to talk.

And, they are mesmerized to learn that elephants really do not care for mice!

Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze! is a -read to- book for the 3 - 6 year old set and a -read with help- for 6 -8 -8. The book is written well, holds children's interest and is just plain fun to read. I particularly like the illustrations, they are child friendly, my first grade likes them very much

I have always enjoy the read, happy to recommend for the target audience. Stand Back," Said the Elephant is a must for the 3 to 8 set, the home, classroom, school and public libraries. Older children in the 9 - 11 group choose the book for reading to the little kids.

Molly Martin
Reviewer

I grew up having this book read to me, and now I can share it with my daughter. I just love the illustrations and the story is so funny - my daughter laughs out loud when I read certain parts. I highly recommend this book.

Though it is a little wordy and long for a 2 year olds attention span, the rhymes are funny and entertaining; a key for a mom who reads each book many, MANY times!

This is one of my favorite children's books ever, one that I remember reading when I was a child (probably twenty years ago!). It's told in a rhyming format (like a Dr. Seuss book) and full of cute, silly conversation among jungle animals regarding an elephant who is about to sneeze. This is silly fun that's great for kids who are being read to (plenty of opportunity for voices during storytelling) or for children who are just past the beginning stages of being able to read themselves.

A wonderful book to read aloud to kids. It is one of our favorite family books.

The history, meaning and importance of our American flag is presented for young readers in rhyme with magnificent illustrations that will be sure to inspire. At the bottom of every page is more historical data, such as the planting of a flag on the moon six times for each Apollo mission, the meaning of our colors, and the myths surrounding the making of our first flag.

How nice to see a patriotic message that entertains and inspires.

This book is a great way to teach children about the Amnerican flag through rhyme and pictures. You can focus primarily on the rhymes for younger children and then focus on the factual information given as a sidebar on each page for older children. Wonderful resource!

The Flag We Love is about the American flag and people willing to die for their country. My favorite picture is when it shows the Viet Nam wall.It is so patriotic. The illustration is so detailed and realistic. I just enjoyed the book very much.

This beautiful book opens with Muñoz's first inspiring verse:

Our flag is our country's symbol
Of ideals that are meant to last
It's a promise for our future
A reminder of our past....

The accompanying illustration by Ralph Masiello shows a freshly whitewashed barn with an American flag gracing one side. A farmer's furrowed field, a vast blue sky and bucolic setting complete the scene. Each page that follows presents another verse, accompanying illustration, and a text box that imparts a piece of our flag's history to the reader. The book is stunning to look at, informative and heartwarming to read. It is a good introduction to youngsters about how our flag came to be, how it's changed over the years, and its meaning to us as citizens.

Carolyn Rowe Hill

I think The Flag We Love by Pam Munoz Ryan is a special book in its own honorable,patriotic,and unique way.It tells about
the flags at the Viet Nam Wall and who died. That's why I think it's Special.

Definitely Scarry's best work and one of the few books I vividly remember from my childhood. It is a great introduction to geography and world cultures. At 3, my son was able to identify shapes of countries, flags and traditional clothing from around the world.

Very fun anthology of numerous 2-page stories from around the world. Charming detailed pictures, culturally relevant backdrops.

Publishers: Please renew licenses for this and reprint it! I've bought "busy, busy town" and "mother goose" as gifts only because this one is out of print.

Wow! I can't belive this book is not in print. I loved it as a kid and was hoping to get one for my new baby. My sisters and I loved reading this stories. It's too bad we don't have our old copy. Publishers, please bring this book back!!

This is my Favorite book from when I was a child. I still have my torn up copy at home and when I feel really sick I make my Dad read it to me.

Still reading my childhood copy to my 3 kids. The 10 year old, all full of attitude and desire for adult fare, just said the other day, "That's still one of my favorite books." The 4 year old could read it every night.

Amazingly, I don't remember knowing who Couscous was in the street scene until reading it to them and noticing the clue in the next scene.

I have an original copy of this book, which my children, esp. the youngest, LOVED. His daughter is turning one year old and they've asked everyone to pick out a favorite book for a gift (as they are inundated w/more clothes, toys, etc. than they will ever need).
His wife asked him if he had a favorite book as a child, and this was it!
Despite it's being read SO many times, it's in really good condition and is the 1965 edition, which I now know is long out of print.
So, this will be a gift for her from grandma & grandpa... though she likely won't handle it herself for a while!

This book is great! The illustrations are so impressive that even though they only black and white your children will love them. We spend time on each page just looking over the illustration each time we find something we didn't see before. And the story, WOW! This story is a must for every little girl. The story teaches young girls not to be niave and believe every little flattering word someone is telling you. In the end all that sweet talk may just be fooling you so someone else can get what they want, like the spider getting the fly. I will be reading this book more often to my daughters as they get older!

This style of the book reminds me of Edward Gorey. The illustrations are fabulous, if the matter is a bit dark. I have bought this for numerous friends after finding it at a unique bookstore in Portland, OR. Everyone who reads it ends up loving it.

wonderful story with a twist at the end. Wonderful illustrations. Don't in an old spooky way.

This book is amazing. We LOVE it! I love reading it to my daughter, because its a very easy read with a great cadence, and its fun to pour over the illustration to find something new every time. Tony DiTerlizzi is an awesome illustrator, and I am looking forward to seeing more stories illustrated by him.

This item was exactly as described in the item description. It was in the original packaging and is in excellent condition. I am very satisfied and I highly recommend this seller and product to everyone. This is an excellent book by an excellent author!

I received this book as a gift from my mother. It was in a pile of books my mom found at a yard sale and sent prior to the birth of our first baby. I never looked at the book until the first day that our son was home from the hospital. I picked up the book to read it to that sweet new little life. I wept tears of joy as I read each page. It is truly a beautiful and poetic book, and one I will treasure always. I've given this book now several times to expecting friends and family.

I wish I had read the description closer. I wanted a board book. Oh well - Great book!!

This book has beautiful pictures to accompany the wonderful words that I, as a mother, truly mean every time I read them to my sweet girls. I first found this book in the library, and just had to own it. I also bought the board book as a gift for a friend.

This is the best book to give your child or grandchild. Small children love being read this book!

This is my favorite book to gift to new parents. Whether they've been blessed with a baby boy or girl, this is the perfect book to start off a life-time of reading. My other favorites are "Cookies Bite-Size Life Lessons" and "Jamberry"...there's just something so special about picture books, isn't there?

My daughter, Chloe, loves this book, and so do I. We have fun reading it together. She brings it up all the time. She will be hanging upside down off of the couch and she will say "Silly Chloe went to town, walking backwards upside down!" Silly Sally gets an A+ in my book!

My 5 year old loves this book. She has it memorized and "reads" it to us over and over again. It's very cute, building on the page before. The illustrations are great and silly and there is a definite resolution. A must read for all.

Great book as it plays on the the silly humor that we all share. Simple story line with colorful illustrations that my 3 year old could relate to. I sent this book to my daugher's daycare and her teacher commented how the other children loved the story too. That really made my day. Its a great book to make kids laugh.

I bought this book for my daughter after reading the reviews on amazon. She absolutely loves the book and has memorized the book from front to back. At 2.5 years old, she can repeat the text in the book word for word when I read it to her.

An entertaining and great book for little girls. I am glad that I bought it for my daughter..

Can Audrey and Don Woods go wrong? I have not seen a single book by this pair that I haven't liked. I love the illustrations as usual, but I really love the meter of the text and the way it is combined and placed with the illustrations. It has a very musical quality and really lends itself to being read aloud. I have it almost memorized after only a few readings. I think I probably like to read it more than my daughter :-)

Words cannot express how completely awesome and spine-tingling this book is. I saw Marshall Ball on the Oprah show several years ago and was so in awe of him that as soon as the show ended I got in the car and drove to the bookstore to buy the book. It will make you smile, cry and laugh; it really left me with the lessons of 'miracles do happen' and 'you never know what someone can do until you give them a chance'. It's a definite must read.

Marshall Ball is exquisite. With the simplicity of a child and the wisdom of the ages, he speaks with a profound understanding that could only be Divine. Marshall cannot speak, so he uses an alphabet board to point to each letter. This is a painstakingly long process. He was born with a disease that keeps him confined to a wheelchair. At age nine, he was evaluated at school with a twelfth-grade reading level. I was pleasantly inspired by Marshall and eagerly await more writings from him. My favorite quote from Marshall is: "Can we free the world to think perfectly about the listening and marvelous children?" I highly recommend this book.

Recommendation:
A great book for traveling on a journey with a special child. If you have a special child, get this book, because you may learn more about your child, and their own journey and thoughts. If you don't have an special child, then get this book and learn about the blessings that come with the pain and challenges of the journeys that parents of special children travel.

Book Review
Marshall writes, with physical assistance, of things we cannot see, or imagine in our busy and cluttered lives. Yet, these are the important, and permanent things that life is determined on, not the urgent and unimportant.

His poems are very good (fantastic considering his age and issues) and offer a mature, yet spiritually innocent viewpoint that remains objective and not caught up with our worldly challenges.

Marshall is here and suffers in order to fulfill God's purpose of helping us, and those who need spiritual assistance.

How Marshall Helped Us Learn of Our Daughter's Thoughts, and Experiences:
We have a daughter with severe cerebral palsy who cannot speak or walk an had just finished two weeks of therapy in Chicago and were catching a plane for the ride home. This was two years ago, so she was four at the time. By accident, I packed her reading books, so we stopped in the book store to find a book to read. We accidently came across Marshall's book and I explained to my daughter that Marshall was like her, and could not speak or walk, and was just a few years older. Then, I asked her if she wanted to get Marshall's book, she got very excited (happy).

On the plane we read the first few pages and came across this part of Marshall's poem...

Even though my individuality finds
sweet knowing perfection, I listen
for the answers to wishes from above.

So, I asked my daughter if God spoke to her about her wishes and prayers. She just about jumped out of her skin!!! It was like finally!!!! Someone knows my secrets!!!! Yes, I speak to God and He speaks to me!!!!

I was startled, and asked her some poorly developed questions. After a couple of months, I thought about the questions I asked and also her answers, and I realized that I really did not learn what I thought I had learned. (We have to ask her questions, with two or three answers for her to choose from, then ask additional questions to further determine her correct and precise answers).

Because I only want the truth, regardless of the issues, I spent some time to relaly think about the questions, and alternative answers that could be gleaned from my technique, then began to ask her more precise questions to nail down her responses.

What I found is that she did speak to and hear from God every night. That she did remember her personal journey (died at birth for 35 minutes), and remembered seeing God when she died. She did not remember being in the hospital, being taken off life support, or anything else.

But, when she died, she went to heaven, and was not given a choice, but was told to return to her Mommy and Daddy (which she wanted); and she was told that her purpose was to help a lot of children who were in need. (...) She came back to us - obviously - and now is a bright 6 year old who goes to full inclusion school, has many friends and lots of fun. Yet, she cannot speak, or walk, yet. (But is making great progress!)

Without reading Marshall's book, I would never have thought to ask these questions, and would have never have learned my daughter's secrets.

As heralded by such masters as Eckhart Tolle and Don Miguel Ruiz the earth at this time is graced by a number of awakened divine flowers of consciousness which grace us with their tremendous healing power and gentility. Marshall Ball is no doubt one such light in our world. His healing gift is through the power of his words. In these important documents of our time [Kiss of God & A Good Kiss] Marshall Ball uses his gentle and seemingly simple use of the English language to incite a healing effect that evokes deep emotions and directly effects the heart. Short of a miracle, both of Marshall Ball's books are a collection of communications poetically expressed and clearly echo teachings from A Course in Miracles, Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now and Stillness Speaks, and the Conversations with God books, none of which have been a source of study for this young man of 17. It seems Truth is spoken again by another source of pure love, but here, with heavenly gentleness and a poetic voice that can lift and heal the coldest of hearts. I highly recommend reading and studying both "Kiss of God" and "A Good Kiss" as material for spiritual study and personal growth. May this gentle heavenly force continue to grace us with his divine wisdom and healing voice.

This book will touch you. There is a simplicity and purity of thought, but there are deeper more profound meanings there for you to discover on your own. Marshall is a special child of God, as we all are in our own way. Love and listening are prevalent themes in Marshall's short poems and prose. I am a grown man with grown children, and I am not prone to tears, but many of Marshall's words brought tears to my eyes. I know God talks through Marshall. Share this book with your friends and family.

Great children's book. It's a fun way to encourage and read with your child.

This books is wonderful! I am using it in small groups at work and the kids absolutely cannot get enough of this book. I bought all titles in the series! Great for paired reading among siblings, parents and children, and friends!

Our students really love all the books in this series. They frequently choose them to read to each other during free choice time. I would really recommend this book to other teachers as a great source for oral reading practice!

My seven year-old grandson introduced me to Mary Ann Hoberman's work. He loved reading to and with me. I'm a volunteer reading tutor and I use her books to teach first graders to read. They love it.

I highly recommend the books by Mary Ann Hoberman to excited kids about reading.

Judith Hays

I love Mary Anne Hoberman's "The Cozy Book", it is always a great bedtime story. So, when I found this title on Amazon, I couldn't resist. My son is 7 and enjoys reading, so this was perfect for us; he reads to me, I read to him, and we read the last verse together. The stories are cute and short, good if you only have a few minutes at the end of the day. The emphasis on reading is an added bonus.

After having 3 children, I've read lots and lots of children's books, some over and over. This is by far, the best and my personal favorite. It is written as a poem, and has a funny surprise ending! You and your kids will love it.

All three of my boys (3, 7 & 9.5) really enjoyed this book. It magically appeared on our dining room table on Xmas Eve 2007. We read it together more than once and all gave it glowing reviews!

This is a marvelous story that tells of one Christmas tree that is far too much for just one person. The tree is trimmed, and shared, and trimmed, and shared, and trimmed, and shared until far more people than Mr. Willoby alone, along with many animal families, have a bit of the tree to add beauty to their Christmas festivities! The rhyming text makes it a fun story to read aloud to children!

I always buy a Christmas-themed picture book for my children to read to them on Christmas Eve before bedtime. I got this one for my eight-year-old who is reading on a sixth grade level. Turns out we are never too old or too advanced to enjoy a good picture book. She loved the predictability of the story, and so did my six-year-old.

This has always been my favorite Christmas Book (just edging out "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by a glowing-red nose!). I'm happy to say that I own an original first printing of both books, but it's "Willowby" that I continue to purchase, year after year, for my friends and their children.

The charm of this story lies in the "one person's discards are another person's treasures" category. The oversufficient tree that old man Willowby brings into his mansion is snipped on top to clear his cathedral ceiling, and every recipient into whose hands the pruned remnant falls must perform the same whittling fix to adapt the orphaned fir to his own, progressively more spartan, hovel. Passing from maidservant to gardener to a scavenging bear and other various critters, after smaller and smaller sprigs make the rounds throughout the countryside near Willowby's estate, the last one eventually ends up with a family of mice who just happen to live in Mr. Willowby's wall! Thus, one huge tree is inadvertently able to make everyone's Christmas a bit brighter! Joy to the world!

Robert Barry's verses are easily read, and are exquisitely enhanced by the accompanying artwork -- especially the portrayal of the Benjamin Rabbit family. Too cute! While "Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree" is no doubt a children's story, at Christmas aren't we really ALL children? And what better way to enjoy one's Yuletide holiday than with a delightful, uplifting tale where everyone wins?