Poetry Books

I read the 1973 monolingual translation with a preface by journalist Gloria Emerson and historical background provided by Alexander Woodside. I also searched the Internet for background information about this epic poem. I found that it is considered to be Viet Nam's most prominent work. I don't recommend embarking on this work without any background information, otherwise it won't make much sense.

A young woman named Kieu's family suffers misfortune due to corruption. Her father is falsely arrested and she ends up having to sell herself to pay his ransom. She then suffers a series of betrayals, lost loves, and setbacks. For the reader to fully appreciate this he/she must have some familiarity with Vietnamese history.

One reviewer complained that the translation is not exactly accurate. Unfortunately, whenever a work is translated there is virtually always some sacrifice of accuracy for clarity or fluidity. Translation is also an art. In this case the translator has managed to create or, more likely, preserve a poetic sing-song quality.

I love this book, its great if you want to knowabout the Tale of Kieu. However, I dilike the translation. I don't think they're right in some places. I don't see how they're translated from Vietnamese to English correctly. In some ways, they do not make sense.

This is the epic tale of Thuy Kieu, a middle class teenage girl who was as gifted as beautiful. The future, despite its promising outlook turned out to be a life-wrecking nightmare for Kieu. Her travails are beautifully described in this lengthy narrative poem written by Nguyen Du, a 19th century scholar.

The work explores the many conflicting virtues imposed on Kieu by a Confucian society and how they affect her life. It is a classic as it is taught in school and quoted by almost any Vietnamese: the verses are even recited at social gatherings. Huynh Sanh Thong has done a great job in translating this work in English.

_The Tale of Kieu_ is engaging in a whistfully episodic sort of way. This version is more complete than the paperback (Vintage press), offering a few dozen extra verses not offered in the earlier edition. Ultimately a victory by the hand of fate, the long-suffering heroine Kieu eventually becomes queen, but only after becoming a prostitute, and suffering a complete loss of social status.

Though Kieu's wanderings are somewhat episodic, the entire epic is rather enchantingly framed by a Cinderella-like relationship with a departed spirit who protects the girl and woman. For Kieu's dependence upon fate (and her impotence as a female within her society), the tale can seem like another tiresome account not of female heroism, but of misogynistic fun with a female lead. Nonetheless, as Thong's introduction explains, Kieu can also be seen as a depiction of strife-torn Vietnam, a country whose history of national sorrow precedes the Vietnam war by centuries.

All things considered, this book is certainly worth the brief effort that will go to reading it. Anyone doing research along the lines of women's studies would definitely benefit from this work.

Vietnamese, or no, it is difficult not to respond strongly to the tale of Kieu's woes and dignity in the face of misery. Kieu's story is one in which bad fortune, conflicting duties, personal caprices and betrayals, and petty tyrannies all play a role in creating an existence for her that any reasonable person knows would have humbled them to the point of madness and despair--think of King Lear howling as he holds the body of Cordelia in his arms. This is not what happens to Kieu though. Through a life that forces her first to abandon love and to endure all manner of humiliations and heartbreak for the sake of her family's freedom she maintains an integrity and gracefulness that transcends all the suffering the taboos that she breaks. She is a picture of how one can remain strikingly upright in a world where every type of bad fortune from a monsoon to a B-52 air raid carried the temptation to fall down low.

Though it seems naïve to make it explicit, The Tale of Kieu is a morality tale peculiarly suited to speak to the sensibilities of any people under the yoke of tyranny; be it foreign or homegrown. The nature of tyranny is its unpredictability and most of the history of Vietnam could be written as a history of tyranny; whether Chinese, French, American backed, or completely native. In a society where little is certain, moral adaptability coupled with a sense of duty is valuable beyond quantification. Though not a hero in the sense that her lover Tu Hai is, a rebel and a fighter capable of greatness, she is a hero whom it is possible for ordinary people to emulate. Fate that has made her life a tale of woe, but she never becomes disgraced by it and she certainly never descends to depths of hatefulness of Scholar Ma, Dame Tu, and the company they keep. Even though turned into a courtesan and blown through several horrifying winds degradation in her fifteen years of exile, she is still as righteous and as dignified as she was when she ransomed herself to save her father and brother--even if it is only the reader and not she who sees it.

The profound longing for home and hearth is not something peculiar to the Vietnamese. That longing though became much more to so many Vietnamese in the one hundred sixty years after its publication and could be related to by millions because of the experience of Vietnam under colonialism and decades of war. Kieu never finds peace--and it is only peace, certainly not a happy ending--until she makes her way back to her family and rights the wrong she believes she did to her first love, Kim. Her experience will be like that a leaf in the wind until she is able to reach home. For millions of Vietnamese from the time of this poem's publication down to our exile and uncertainty wrought by forces beyond their control have Kieu's lamentations and experiences parallel their own. Whether in the suburbs of Paris or Los Angeles, a foreign worker in Russia or Germany, or simply forced far from home in Vietnam itself to earn a living, Kieu's experience as an exile knowing none of the security she knew at home speaks to a larger collective experience which is something of a national trauma. Her story is their own.

Kieu's story is not only a profoundly a Vietnamese story, it is very much a story where the protagonist has to be a woman. Nothing says that man could not be as much of a victim of vast impersonal forces and of circumstance as Kieu was, but her travails are gender specific--the product of being a woman in a traditional Confucian society. Just as in others. Confucian society values female virginity and chastity very highly, so it is a peculiarly womanly form of suffering when the trick played on her by So Khanh and Dame Tu forced her to part with her own virginity. Though subtle this is still a form of rape and it is a form that a polite society could stomach. Kieu's decision to allow herself to be prostituted has a metaphorical parallel for all those Vietnamese who had to compromise themselves in order to survive because of the capriciousness of forces beyond their control. There is consolation in the actions of Kieu for every person who under the duress of tyranny has been made to bring themselves low.

The scene in The Tale of Kieu where Kieu dispenses justice to all those who have wronged and graces to all those who have shown her kindness while she has been buffeted from one place to the next is one of the most satisfying scenes that I have ever come across in fiction, comparable to Prospero forgiving all his enemies when they are within his clutches near the close of The Tempest. Like The Tempest the trial that Tu Hai allows Kieu to put all her enemies through--rewards for righteous, mercy for the contrite, death for the wicked--shows some of the greatest hopes of the society that it was written in and for. The want for justice, to reward the righteous and to pardon those not as righteous as ourselves and willing to admit as much while living in peace is the great hope that is held out by the trial and ultimately would seem to be the want longing of every Vietnamese, and every person of conscience who has known injustice and insecurity.

I think this book is adorable and I love the fact that "rednecks" can have a laugh at themselves. I'm sure there are those that would say this book is politically incorrect.....but I don't agree. The two little kids ages 2 and 3 that I read it to loved it!

This book was recommended at a recent math workshop I attended. It provides great counting fun for young children. It is truly a southern book that mixes southern culture with math. No kindergarten classroom should be without.

An absolute delight! Thank you so much, it is the perfect new baby gift!

This book is so cute. I am going to buy it for all my friends who are having babies. A very cute book. A nice baby present to tuck in with all the other gifts.

A most adorable counting book, lending its southern hospitality, while counting up to ten and back again. Ten Redneck Babies tug at your heart as they shinnie up magnolia trees, gobble down Moon Pies, and lap up buttered grits. The rollickin' verse, accompanied with the extraordinary illustrations makes this book a must read. You will to gather up 'Sounthern Humor and hospitality' that will suggest you read this book over and over again. Whether you're chompin' on watermelon or spending your time trying to treed a possum, this book will stand out in your library and make you know that's it's hard to beat 'Southern Charm'.

Yes, you have to read "Theophil Magus in Baton Rouge" - a masterpiece made up of 101 haiku. I do not know too many novelists to be a great poet, an outstanding haijin (haiku creator) like Leonard Oprea. His work is so simple, so profound, so universal, briefly, so genius. Just try to read it and you will be totally charmed. I advice every friend of the great literature to own this book.

Great poetry finds truth, witnesses beauty, and gives life meaning. "Theophil Magus in Baton Rouge, A Haiku Novel" does all of these things.

Oprea doggedly transcends a spiritual and aesthetic abyss and challenges his readers to seek beauty, hope, and freedom. By using the simple formula of haiku, this newly immigrated Romanian author simultaneously crushes both linguistic and spiritual barriers with random natural images from everyday experience. The poet finds true solace in nature, divinity in the sky's colors, grace in the songs of birds, and objectifies anger, frustration, and alienation. His lines take us around the LSU lakes in Baton Rouge, under Spanish moss-draped live oaks, to New Orleans' French Quarter in search of a new spiritual home, almost as if he is on a mission to find the very soul of the American South.

His expectations of what one should find in the "promised land" should not be taken as dissatisfaction, but as a reminder of what should be found. Singing with the downtrodden, oppressed, and misfortunate, Oprea's haiku reminds us that beauty and hope must be steadily pursued, perceived, and seized in the here and now.

Ricky Rees

In his THEOPHIL MAGUS IN BATON ROUGE, Mr. Leonard Oprea has done a Wonderful job of capturing ones imagination and taking you to higher grounds. I found myself immersed in more ways than one. When your busy schedule permits find a quiet comfortable place and enjoy. Great Work!

"... sadness smokes my empty soul... tremor of water... the old road's splendor..." This poetic work of wondering and wandering pays tribute to the author's depth of feeling and insight into a world both alien to him and even lost to itself. Both melancholy yet at the same time punctuated by a lonely hope and a sense of an underlying, spiritual narrative, Mr. Oprea brilliantly paints a tale (whether intended as a tale or not)of pilgrimage, sorrow, and quiet grandeur that lives not just in Baton Rouge, but perhaps beneath all things in all places. "Theophil Magus in Baton Rouge" is astounding and beautiful. I recommend it highly.

Leonard Oprea's haiku novel is a reflection of his emotions experienced in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In short but powerful sentences Leonard Oprea creates a peaceful yet complex image of his beginning a new life. He came to this place as an adult but I could sense in his writing the wonder of a child discovering things for the first time.
I find Leonard's haiku novel very fascinating and I enjoyed reading it very much.

Terri Erickson has managed to weave, then wrap the reader in a percale of purest poetry. And like the finer fabrics, she has woven a breathable art... each square inch of highest content, which touches the reader like a slight whisper... brushing the ear and turning the head. The longer "Thread Count" is held, the closer it is held... smooth, touchable, fragile. Sheets of every color, emotional hue, pastels and earthy tones... continental and worldy. Everything about Ms. Erickson's work is balanced... but leaves you spinning. The cover captivates. The body fits the hand and lap. But don't think it's "light" reading. The content... at times weighted, lands in your heart like a brick through your living room window... a brick she has covered in silk. A read that transports you back in time and space, exiting the now. She has thrown a percale sheet out her window, knotted, making a rope to link you with her world. An absolute must!

Terri Kirby Erickson's first book is rich in metaphors and diverse in subject matter. Her love of language and poetry is evident in each of her spirited and original poems. The poem "Luncheon in Paris" was my favorite and well worth the price of the book. The book is beautiful both inside and out. The cover art is spectacular.

"Thread Count" by Terri Kirby Erickson, is a finely tuned energy force that transcends us to another world. Feel the true flight of poetry, as you are taken over by the imagery invoked in the mastery of her linguistics. Terri's, "Thread Count", has touched many heart's by more than just magical words.
I will always cherish my copy.
I recommend buying more than one to share with family members and friends. If you don't you may be looking for your copy!
TKE, Thank you Repique

Reading Thread Count was a magnificent experience. I found myself drifting back to my childhood and musing over times I myself experienced the same feelings but lacked the wherewithal to give those experiences poetic expressions such as Terri Erickson has done. Thread Count evokes feelings ranging from exhilaration to profound understanding of loss whether it be loss of a person we are close to or simply loss of ones own health status. Other poems in the book have the ability to propel you into a totally different world in another country. I often found myself with misty eyes and at other times laughed out loud at the vivid imagery reading this poetry brought to mind. I would highly recommend reading this book and gifting it to those you care about.

I have been able to laugh/cry and identify with Terri in this collection of her poetry. It transcends both culture and time in common experiences that are often unpsoken, but have remained strong inside us all. I look forward to her next work, in the meantime it is a book i will return to, time and again. I have my favourite poems, and urge you to find yours. Excellent!!

With reading and storytelling as important background themes, we learn how one intelligent, sensitive and creative young black man survived Jim Crow's pre-WWII south. In Adam David Miller's memoir, "Ticket to Exile" we stand in an important American literary tradition that began with the slave narratives and carried on through the transitional work of Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, Alex Haley's "Roots" and even the the wild (yet deeply humane) work of Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Harper Lee, and Zora Neale Hurston. In Orangeburg, South Carolina, the separation between whites and blacks was not so much a ghettoized apartheid as a separation enforced by the banal daily routines of institutional racism: humiliation, the constant aura of violence, and "laws" and customs meant to enforce powerlessness and subservience, both economic and cultural. In this south, blacks and whites lived near one another, their lives constantly intertwining and mutually influencing. Northerners often don't get this. Miller's writing places us smack-down in an "anytown" America through its uncanny descriptions of that rural/village setting, filtered through a child's lens. Here, people know each other's business all too well, and petty prejudices and stifling status markers play their painful roles. Neverthless--and here is the memoir's comic relief--people (and Miller) get by on their imaginations: storytelling lends a balance to harsh realities; even the stories of catching and eating vermin are not entirely repelling because of the oddly compelling form in which the memories are recounted. Miller's soft-spoken worldliness shows us, too, how West African roots express themselves in southern culture; I'd like more of this in our telling of American history. I love the details of how families and neighbors got along (or didn't) and Miller's understated poetic prose--there's nothing show-offy here, thank goodness. I had a visceral awareness of this time and place, and even when the going was exceptionally rough, I felt the writer's confident hand. The book left me with a deeper vision of race in America and of humanity in its larger sense, for, if anything, the book showed me how the manufacture of "race" always limits our humanity. This book should be required reading in schools, book-groups, and the halls of our political leaders.

VERY INTERESTING MEMOIR,THE IMPACT THAT DRIVE UKNOWN LIMITS TO COLOR PEOPLE,THIS STILL UNRESOLVE, THIS BOOK GIVES YOU THE BIG PICTURE HOW, BACK IN TIME THE WOLRD START TO DISSECT THEMSELVES AND NOT BEING RESPECTED AS REAL HUMANS BEING.

Adam David Miller's new memoir is a startling look back at a valuable life that was nearly extinguished by ignorance and fear. The book is a multi-faceted look at the human condition and how we treat one another in a world that would often have us consider one another the enemy. The fact is that Mr. Miller does himself great credit by not hammering on the idea that only white people were dangerous to existence, and emphasizing that race is not the only issue, but difference of any sort. This, despite the central fact that his tale is one of fear and oppression by white people. This lack of hyperbole gives credence to the basis for his story. Here is the tale of a man almost lynched by a mob of white men during the early 40's in the Jim Crow South, a tale that takes the time and care to cover all the ways in which human beings demean and punish one another for their individuality. In doing this, Mr. Miller makes it quite clear that there are good folks and bad folks, although he does not use that nomenclature, but that the hierarchy of oppression from white to black is only one sort of bigotry, and that horror begins with fear of difference. The central and underlying concept of the book impresses anyone who picks this volume up with its certain knowledge of what centuries of oppression does to those oppressed: to turn those of white skin against those whose blood contains so little as "one drop" of African-American blood, those of lighter color against those who have darker skin, male and female against one another, those with education and social standing against their less well-educated, well-heeled neighbors, those from one side of a town against those from the less-desirable address, and homophobes of whatever sexual orientation who fear they might become tainted by what a person does in the privacy of his or her own body against love, and those with the desire for love, however that might be defined. This moving book is the story of a town in the Jim Crow South, but it is also the story of anytown anywhere in the United States of its time - and of anytown anywhere today (despite the current emphasis on politically correct phraseology practiced in public). It is also the story of a boy turned man in one second by circumstances beyond his control, and beyond his ken at the moment he is betrayed. Mr. Miller's young life is held forfeit in the hands of a group of men who know him and his family and yet consider killing him because of his skin color. In addition, it is the story of all of us at that age (19) - bored with our hometown, looking for some new and interesting person/thing/idea, we leave the local setting and set out on our journey to human independence. The difference here is that Mr. Miller is thrown from one sort of exile into another, as much against his journey as his ancestors were against theirs. For most of us growing up with a wish for independence, we find ourselves in new territory, but Mr. Miller finds himself in terrifying new territory in the city jail, and later in completely new territory, both mentally and physically. It is a journey to independence as a human being, and Mr. Miller makes the telling of his odyssey with rare grace and aplomb. We can thank the framers of the Declaration of Independence (some of whom were slaveholders) for the quote "...life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...," but we owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Miller for having continued the tradition of citizens who fought for independence so that they might live in a way that honors the individual bravery and honor of all. This reminder is all the more ironic coming from a man whose ancestors were ripped from their own country and culture and exiled into enforced enslavement. Bravo, Mr. Miller! Next installment please!

What an immensely readable treasure. I smiled, I cried, I was provoked, riled against the injustices, 'bled' from the scab of hurt living with this history in my lap. I was kept on the edge of my seat for two nights even though the book is structured with the 'ending' first--what an accomplishment just on that note alone. I'm deliciously confused how the author kept the suspense and incredible tension going in flashback. So all this to say, I'm waiting for the 'next installment...' (a memoir covering the next period of years?)

Ticket to Exile The book, Ticket to Exile is a rare intimate portrait of an intelligent mind trapped in an ignorant world. As I read this book I found it to be thought provoking and inspiring. As a person of color, I kept comparing my life to Mr. Miller's childhood. I was amazed by how resilient and resourceful my elders were in stark contrast to how easy my life is today. Ticket to Exile opened my eyes to the subtle and damaging aspects of internal and institutional racism as it was at that time and it made me reflect on how it continues today. If this book doesn't change your mind I hope that it changes your heart. As it has mine. Ticket to Exile is an affirmation of life. Thank you Mr. Miller! I highly recommend this book for all readers, book clubs and especially High School students.

Given this group of poems one might make the argument that war has the capacity to transform and transcend ordinary beliefs. One might even make the point that war confronts us with the logical extension of our animal natures and then raises us to heights of enlightenment through heroic self sacrifice. Certainly Muir brings forth the soul and its despair in his poems of war and war's detritus. However, it is hoped that poetry of this type of breathtaking inspiration could also have come from Muir's life without the bloody chaos. Of course we will never know and as such we can only thank Muir for his expressions of the soul.

Tigers and Songbirds Before he became a teacher himself, I invited John to read his poetry to students from my high school's English Classes. Five separate audiences of over 200 students sat in uncharacteristic silence for 30 miniutes, followed by many thoughtful questions. As we crossed the campus during lunch break, a young man approached and told John that he had always hated the poetry units in English until then. He thanked us for opening his eyes to a new view.

College and High School English and American History teachers who want to help their students have a deeper understanding of our country's war experiences would do well to include this book in their lesson plans. My students were especially moved by "Ephram." One AP History teacher used "Forty-Second Birthday" to spark a discussion on the experience of our veterans. This is a great book for supplemental reading.

The book is a magnficent achievement...True emotion and great thought on everypage..loved it..!

Jackie Lapin, author of The Art of Conscious Creation, How You Can Transform the World

I have seen Mr. Muir read his poetry in front of a lecture hall of 150 college students. The students sat in mesmerized silence for over an hour. Reading his poetry in "Tigers and Songbirds" is just as powerful as hearing it live. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand what war does to the soul.

J. Cruickshank Muir's book of poetry is a labor of love and heartbreak. It's a collection of truths often learned in despair and then sometimes doubted or denied or learned anew. It's an affirmation of life in all its joy and grief, penned with cynicism and hope, and wry good humor.
If lessons are offered, they are these: Always question and never despair. Give your all, take what's given, and cherish the new day.
Muir went through a war and lived to tell about it. The war colored his entire life, and yet he loves life for all it's worth, so maybe this is a book that heals in a painful way, or hurts in a healing way.

JAKE IS A TALENTED YOUNG MAN WITH MANY GOAL AHEAD OF HIM. HIS WRITINGS ARE VERY INSPIRATIONAL AND HE HAS DONE VERY WELL. DISPITE HIS BLINDNESS, HIS ABILITY TO WRITE AND ACHIEVE HIS GOALS ARE REMARKABLE. CONTINUE TO WRITE YOUR POEMS.

Jake is an inspiration to all who have read his poetry books. I have been inspired twice because I have met this young man. He is a gifted writer and is like a storyteller using poetry. Jake reminds us that despite our shortcomings, we are capable of achieving our dreams. His poetry reflects life experiences we all share. Every parent needs to share this young man's story with their children because they need positve influences to help shape their lives for tomorrow.

I have heard this wonderful young man speak and have been incredibly moved by his story and the obstacles he has overcome. His beautiful book of poetry has become one of my greatest treasures. I'm delighted that Amazon.com is helping make "Time Is Slipping Away" available for all the world to read and enjoy. Jake is not only an extremely gifted writer but a powerfully inspirational speaker as well. He'll melt your heart and keep you longing to hear more. The best advice I can give is: buy yourself a copy and enjoy every word, then send some copies to your family and friends. It's a perfect gift to send to anyone at any time, and a source of inspiration you will treasure forever.

What a wonderful compilation of poems, and thoughts Jakes has compiled. Jakes parents must be very proud of their son. The book takes me back to the time when I was young, and full of the wonders of life. We are proud to have Jake as a MAA(Motown Alumni Association)member.

Jake's poems tell a story of how someone who is blind can still see, feel and experience the many joys and pains of the world. Through his eyes Jake expresses his way of experiencing life in a way many of us will never understand. Through his vision, we can all learn how to look at the simple things and weight them with much more strength!

Este libro de poemas es hermosisimo ..... si la vida fuera como lo mencionan los poemas, no podría decir cual es la mejor entre las mejores....

ramillete de flores perfumadas que nos devuelven a la belleza del amor !
HERMOSÌSIMAS... SI LA VIDA ME FUERA EN ELLO, NO PODRIA DECIR CUAL ES LA MEJOR ENTRE LAS MEJORES !

ramillete de flores perfumadas que nos devuelven a la belleza del amor !
HERMOSÌSIMAS... SI LA VIDA ME FUERA EN ELLO, NO PODRIA DECIR CUAL ES LA MEJOR ENTRE LAS MEJORES !

ramillete de flores perfumadas que nos devuelven a la belleza del amor !
HERMOSÌSIMAS... SI LA VIDA ME FUERA EN ELLO, NO PODRIA DECIR CUAL ES LA MEJOR ENTRE LAS MEJORES !

Urbina, con su "Lo sentï: No fue una separacion, sino un desgarramiento.."
Neruda: "Puedo escribir los versos mas tristes esta noche...
"Lope de Vega: "¿Que tengo yo que mi amistad procuras?¿Qué interés se te sigue, Jesus mío ?"
Nervo:"Si Tu me dices "ven", lo dejo todo..!"
El Fraile Guevara: " No me mueve, mi Dios, para quererte, el cielo que me tienes prometido..."
Aguirre y Fierro con su Brindis del Bohemio
La Mistral:"PIececitos de niño, azulosos de frío,¿como os ven y no os cubren,? ¡Dios Mío!"
Andres E. Blanco"Por mi el cmbate en la altura
y en la palabra civil.
Por mi la flor en la barda
y la Rosa de Martì.
Por mi, ni un odio, hijo mio:
¡Ni un solo rencor por mi!"

No hay mucho más que decir...Por esta obra, desfila la belleza del alma humana...

Excellent addition to the home school library. Expands knowledge of art in a wonderful way. Kids love to touch and this is a wonderful way to learn. A+++

This is a great concept! Famous works of art are made more approachable by use of touch and feel! We love all the books in this series. My two girls are 3 yrs old and 18 months old and they both love touching this book!
This book includes:
Campbell's Soup Can- Andy Warhol
Untitled- Keith Haring (red, blue and green figures dancing)
Girl with Ball- Roy Lichtenstein
Two Cheeseburgers with Everything- Claes Oldenburg
The Woodcut Bathrobe- Jim Dine
Cakes- Wayne Thiebaud
Marilyn- Andy Warhol
Love, Indiana Stable May 66- Robert Indiana
Mustard on White- Roy Lichtenstein
At the end of the book the authors have included a short paragraph about each work of art and the artist who created it, which is great for me since I never knew much about modern art.
As with all the books in this series, the artwork is the main event- don't buy these books for the great literary prose- you'll be disappointed there. But the great art really makes up for it! You will be so engrossed by the artwork and the touch and feel that the lack of creative prose wont bother you!
These books are great for kids and their parents! The famous works of art make touch and feel books more interesting for the parents, and the fun tactile elements make art education books more fun for the kids!

It's interactive and fun :) My 3 1/2 yr old follows right along and it's the perfect length for a quick bedtime read with a catalog of the work in the back for more in-depth conversations about the artists. My favorite kid-art book to date.

My daughter loves to look through this book. She calls it "the dancing guys books" based on the first work shown---by Keith Haring. We all enjoy looking at the cakes in the Wayne Thiebaud painting, and the LOVE painting.

However, I wonder why the words are really necessary. The rhymes all seem forced and add very little to the book. The last one annoys me the most---"Icky, sticky mustard bread, Poke the crust and go to bed." Now what the point of that? I tried reading the text along with the pictures the first few times through, but soon gave up on it and just talk about the pictures as we go.

The touch and feel aspects are mixed. I guess they encourage kids to linger longer over each piece, but they aren't spectacular. For example, the page with cakes has only a few cakes with slightly raised patterns---hard even to notice. The robe picture has one fuzzy part of an arm---I think it would be just as enjoyable without it.

I don't mean to sound critical, as I do love the idea of this book---it's great to introduce kids to real art early on. I just think in this case, less would be more---less words, less gimmacks, more art!

I bought all of the books in this series for my nine-year-old son who is autistic. His skill set and sensory issues are all over the place, so it is nice to find a series of books with lots of tactile opportunities and simple reading but that are more sophisticated than the usual "touch and feel" board books for babies.

It probably sounds almost like a cliche, but I still must say it--Anne Sexton takes a new spun perspective on the classic Grimm fairy tales. She has a "theme" which she feels is appropriate for each story. Then, she fills in the blank of what elements and details seem to be missing in the fairy tales. The flat and static characters such as Mother Gothel now become a more complex character. In this cynical and dense poems, Sexton makes it seem as if her stories are the untold truth of the fairy tales.

In all my readings of fairy tale variations, this has to be one of the best. Anne Sexton takes a grim and twisted approach to the already grim and twisted versions of the Grimm Brothers.

Of course, these poems are simply an extension of Anne Sexton's already established confessional form, but poetry is, first and foremost, an expression of society. These poems fail to remain part of Sexton's inner turmoil. Rather, they mock society and the roles that women are traditionally placed within fairy tales. Anne Sexton, in an example here, uses anachronisms to reach her audience, making references to popular culture.

The Queen Cried two pails of sea water. She was as persistent as a Jehovah's Witness.

Anne Sexton, "Rumpelstiltskin"

Although Sexton's poems are not suitable for an audience of children, they do serve as interesting, even necessary reading, once a child has matured and read beyond the traditional fairy tales that are `suitable' for kids.

I teach Anne Sexton in my freshman College English class and I work specifically from this text because the stories are at once familiar shared traditions and disturbing alterations of those traditions. The 18 year olds I teach, who only know fairy tales from the white-washed Disney versions, are intrigued by these dark and psychological interpretations. For the fairy tale afficianado these poems are a must read.

I have Anne Sexton's complete works, and this book rises above the rest. The fairy tale framework compels more structure and discipline from a poet accustomed to rambling (but often brilliant) confessional observation. It is, in my estimation, her finest work.

Her take on "Snow White" refuses to establish heroines or villains. The girl is a lovely virgin, "cheeks as fragile as cigarette paper...lips like Vin du Rhone." The jealous queen, still beautiful at middle age but fearing that time isn't on her side and informed by her mirror she's no longer "the fairest of them all," tries to kill her. For this, she is punished by torture. The twist here is that Sexton makes it clear that some day the virgin girl will meet the queen's fate: "Meanwhile Snow White held court,/ rolling her china-blue eyes open and shut/ and sometimes referring to her mirror/ as women do."

The lesbian implications of "Rapunzel" are brought to the fore, and the transvestite deception of "Little Red Riding Hood" is remarked on. Sexton crashes the dreamy romance of Cinderella with the mundane reality of marriage. "Happily ever after" is contrasted with "diapers...arguing...getting a middle-aged spread." The Freudian power of mother is accented in the poet's take on "Hansel and Gretel"; Sexton brings out dark implications of child murder and pedophilia that the original tale merely glosses.

Twenty years before Robert Bly tackled the "Iron John" fairy tale, Sexton put her spin on it, stressing the main character's cannibalism and outcast status. She compares the hairy wild man to a string of deeply troubled characters from her imagination. It is here where her poetry reaches the peak of its intensity: "A lunatic wearing that strait jacket/ like a sleeveless sweater, singing to the wall like Muzak.../ And if they stripped him bare/ he would fasten his hands around your throat/ After that he would take your corpse/ and deposit his sperm in three orifices./ You know, I know,/ you'd run away."

Sexton's deep-delving into childhood stories, unearthing the very real and plausible taboos they skirt, is refreshing. Her anachronistic use of modern language (Muzak, for instance) is artful and effective. The best thing about this book, however, is that so much madness and sadness is surmised from such timeless and appealing stories. Happy endings are left intact but with a shadow cast over them. Sexton is a poet of the dark--with no one to save her "from the awful babble of that calling."

In this remarkable collection of poems, Anne Sexton offers readers seventeen transformations of classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales. As she makes clear in the first poem "The Gold Key", Sexton assumes the persona of the storyteller for this collection, calling herself a "middle-aged witch" with "my face in a book and my mouth wide, ready to tell you a story or two." This device allows her to write about intensely personal topics, such as a sexually abusive father, through the detached voice of a storyteller. The use of fairy tales also provides Sexton with a shared cultural framework that enables her to communicate her own experiences and perspectives in a universal language that readers already understand intimately.

Fairytales have a power few of us realize. The stories shape many of our fantasies as children; they also condition us to accept traditional gender roles as we grow up. I believe that Anne Sexton understood their power and influence. She brilliantly tapped into that power and transformed the tales in a way that forces the reader to look at them with fresh eyes. Before launching into the tales themselves, Sexton set the themes of the stories in a modern or personal context. These connections, along with the interlacing of 20th century details (like soda pop and jockstraps) and her use of modern syntax in the fairy tales made their subversive commentary on the burdens and fears of women in a society shaped by male dominance startlingly clear.

In her transformed tales, Sexton examines the female archetypes they depict: the docile virgin, the wicked stepmother, the aging witch. She also sheds an illuminating, feminist light on the themes of female competition and the idea of happily ever after which pop up often in fairytales. It is significant that Sexton uses the gritty Grimm versions of the tales, instead of the child-friendly Disney versions we grew up with. Their original form reveals the subversive nature and insightful symbolism of the fairy tales, many of which were crafted by women.

While this collection is a departure from Sexton's typical confessional style, the poems of "Transformations" are unabashedly naked and intimately introspective--a wondrous achievement by one of our greatest poets.