Poetry Books

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?

A very bold book, with uncensored views. It had a story to tell. A story of African American life.

Upon reading this book for the first time, I thought it was very raw and somewhat negative and offensive. After reading it a second time, I realized how true it really is. I understood that the words didn't come from the author's mouth. But from a mother, a man, a teen, a gangster, etc. Then, I was able to relate and appreciate the work. The author of this book is very talented as she travels through the thoughts of various individuals, in various situations. She definitely doesn't beat around the bush. Her words jump right at you. You can't help but recognize them, respect them and open your eyes.

"Open Our Eyes" is a poetry book filled with truth and power. It offers poignant reflections on the African-American's place in today's society. The poems are intense and absorbing. Nanci's poetry goes beyond the superficial blanket that many people tend to hide behind. The depth of the poetry will strike a chord in the souls of many. Nanci is truly a gifted writer who is using her talent to leave a legacy of hope for African Americans everywhere.

I really enjoyed the poetry of Open Our Eyes. Everything in this book has crossed my mind before or I have discussed it with friends. The author is bold and courageous enough to write about it. This author is a powerful performer. I was able to see her in action in Houston. She is adorable, funny and personable. I felt as if I knew her all of my life. Buy a book for yourself and a friend.

I am not much of a reader. It can take me weeks to finish a book no matter how good it is. I live in a slow town, but I just don't have the time,even though I live in a boring town. But this book was diffrent. It is so good I could not put it down. The poems are excellent and make you want to finish the whole book.

I showed this to my small children, older nieces, sister, mother, friends, and grandmother. It appealed to all of them. I bought the deluxe book of flower fairies, the complete flower fairy book and the paper doll book. I needed them for art reference books.

The difference in the first two is:
The deluxe book has a history of the author, her sketches and inspirations, timeline, her prosesses, lots of botanical notes. very collectiors edition, silver leaf and all.

The complete book has fairy's has a 1 page intro of the author then goes straight into images and poems. each has the seasons collections, but the complete has; in addition, the fairies of the garden, trees, wayside and a flower fairy alphabet.

I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my sister, who loves Barker's illustrations. It arrived even more quickly than scheduled, in great condition.

Cicely Mary Barker's eight little flower fairies books were published between 1923 and 1985 making her a household name, especially in Great Britain. Published at the height of the "fairy-mania" that swept England during the early decades of the 20th century they captured in sweetly beautiful images and verse the wonder that many people felt about these elusive tiny creatures. Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) was predominately a self taught artist who during her lifetime suffered from ill-health and physical fragility, thus she escaped into the world of the imagination and make believe. Her unselfconscious, delicate and jewel like watercolors were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, fellow women illustrator Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) and her love of England's many gardens.

Her inspiration for the flower fairies came from the lush English countryside and observing young children at her local village kindergarten where her sister worked as a teacher. Her fairies are delicately and truthfully observed depictions of these young children in naturalistic poses and postures, standing on or clinging to botanically correct and beautifully rendered flowers. Being no bigger than 20cm tall they live and sleep in their birth flower taking care of their respective tree or plant, as the tree or plant grows so they grow in wisdom and power too. Fairies were most popular in the late Victorian and the Edwardian ages but they continued to hold sway over the imaginations of countless children (primarily girls) up into the early modern era... and beyond.

This enchanting and wondrous volume is a collection of all eight flower fairies books including: flower fairies of the spring, summer, autumn and winter and the flower fairies of the alphabet, trees, garden and wayside. As some of the most timeless depictions of the world of faery Cicely Mary Barker captured the innocence and naivety of childhood in exquisitely rendered illustrations and simple verse. While some may see these fairies as "safe" and "tame" depictions of the primal and elemental forces of nature, in my mind they capture the spirit of a bygone era when peoples mores and values were just plain different to ours, if not in some ways better. As such her little fairies lack the cynicism, artificiality and worldliness of the modern age and will continue to hold sway over the minds of generations of fairy lovers to come and will bring out the child within in anyone willing to let themselves go.

Sixty Five years ago, when I was a little girl, I sat at my fathers feet looking at a book that had marvelous pictures of beautiful fairys, so stunning were their bright colors and silky wings that it completely took my breath away for never could I have pictured anything quite so awsome as these tiny little creatures, that I was sure were hiding beneath the petals of flowers in mothers garden, that I had yet to see. I kept this memory all my life sharing it with my children, when they were little, and now my grandchildren. Imagine my astonishment to once again see these beautiful little people again. Take a trip back to childhood and enjoy this beautiful book, share it with your children but keep it for the child that is you.

Beautiful book - I am painting a mural for my daughter's room and wanted to get all the images possible so I bought all the books by this author thinking I was getting a menagerie. But I wasted $ on shipping both ways when I had to send them back upon seeing the smaller tree, flowers, and seasons books were all put together in one place. Just wanted others to know that this large hardback pretty much has it all.

This book is wonderful. It contains many of the poems I learned while growing up, and now I can share them with my grands, as I did with their moms. It stays at "Nana's house" for those special visits.. I hope the little ones (5 of them) will learn to love these words as I did.

I planned to give this book as a gift, so "new condition" was important. When I received it, it did look perfect. Then I opened the front cover. On the inside page was a big inscription "Happy Chanukah from Grandpa Vic"...to my family" etc. That rendered it unusable for my use...and not mentioned in the pre-purchase information.

I ended up giving my own copy, which truly was in new condition, and keeping the inscripted version for myself.

We have borrowed this book several times from the library and I am ordering my own copy today. This has become one of my three year old's favorite bedtime books. Some of the poems are too long for her, and there are many I have to explain to her as we read. I'm buying the book because I anticipate that it is complex and interesting enough to hold her attention for some years to come. This book has a great selection of poetry and beautiful illustrations. I anticipate purchasing several copies in the future as gifts for friends and family.

This book is a treasure. The art is light filled and the selections are very satisfying. Leave it to Caroline Kennedy to share her wealth with the rest of us in her tasteful way.

Jon Muth's breathtaking paintings and Caroline Kennedy's choice of poems make this book a treasure for middle aged me, and children of all ages.

Review by Sherry North, Author, Because You Are My Baby

When I was a child, this book took my breath away. I felt like I was living the incredible adventures in the story, from riding the Birthday Bird to choosing the tallest pet to eating the giant cake. I think this story inspired the adventures I try to create in my own writing.

Now that I'm a mom, I still love this book. It is a little long to hold the attention of toddlers or preschoolers, though, so I recommend it for Kindergarten & up.

I bought this book for both my youngest daughter and our cousin, both who were turning one.

Of course this book is way too advanced for them but I brought it to their 1st birthdays and had everyone who was in attendance sign it. I love looking at all the adorable things people have said and can't wait to show it to them as they get older.

My 2 yr old son destroyed this book just by turning the pages. I wish it were a board book and not a pop up book.

Instead of purchasing birthday cards this year, I purchased several books and wrote a personal message inside the cover. I then passed it around at the birthday parties and invited the guests to also write a message. This will be a wonderful keepsake item for my children and my nieces and nephews.

This is a wonderful book any child should have in their collection. The book can become part of a yearly tradition celebrating their birthdays!

Of all the books I received as baby gifts, this book has had the longest lifespan. It was my daughter's favorite book as soon as she was old enough to turn regular pages, and almost a year later, it still is. Unlike shorter board books which become very repetitive, this book still has poems that seem "fresh" to me. Everytime we read it's a different experience, depending how many pages we turn at a time. It can be a short book or a long book, depending on the day. The illustrations are incredibly detailed. Even after what seems like a thousand reads, I'm finding clever twists and recognizing characters from elsewhere in the book. This book is a classic and offers lots of bang for your buck.

The illustrations for the rhymes are all of cats and other animals as stand in for humans and are very cute. As for the rhymes, there are not many of them and some are truncated.

When my kids were small, I went into a "Mother Goose" kick. I bought and checked out from the Library every Mother Goose I could find, we read them all, and THIS was by far our favorite. The selection of poems was varied, with old favorites and new poems I'd never heard from my childhood as well. The illustrations are beautiful and very fun, Rosemary Wells knows just how kids minds work!

This is a very good book, but it's not quite what I'd imagined. Most of the rhymes were not familiar to me. The illustrations are beautiful, though, and it's fun to read. We enjoy it, but if I had seen it before buying, I probably wouldn't have bought it.

This has been one of our kids' very favorite books since they were about 6 months old, edited by the clever Iona Opie and illustrated by the author of the Max and Ruby books. The sing-song rhythms enchanted them as babies, and the entertaining (and adorable) animal-based interpretations of the words have kept the kids coming back to pull this off the shelf. The collection is really well-chosen, with most of the "classic" nursery rhymes here; my only complaint is that the editor seems to opt for only one verse of most rhymes where in some cases I'm pretty sure there's more to it than that. The division into "chapters" makes it a little easier to find a closure point, since they keep wanting to hear/see "just one more!" A great baby gift.

Anytime I order from Amazon, I throw one of these in my cart for a last minute new baby, birthday or teacher gift. It is a wonderfully diverse selection of poems, often read by the poets themselves. How cool is it to hear Robert Frost in a scratchy rendition of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"?

My 4th grader was thrilled when his class read a Janet Wong poem, and he could tell them about how she came to write it, (track 29). I was thrilled that I could then give his teacher a gift she could use in class -- they were all thrilled to hear the poem read by the poet. With 95 poems from 73 poets, the book is a great value, but add the cd with the poets themselves and it is, well, priceless.

I am an amateur poet and love poetry so I'm a natural audience for this book and companion disc. My wife is not a lover of poetry and she loves this book. My eight year old daughter loves to read the poems and listen to them recited on the disc during road trips. My nineteen year old daughter LOVES this book - in fact she asked for it for Christmas last year and was delighted to recieve it!

I gave this book/CD to my daughter for her 6th birthday party. After the party while she played with the neighbors I was exhausted and just wanted to take a nap. Before I did though I put this 68 minute CD of poetry on and found it to be very entertaining and relaxing. 29 of the readers are the poets reading their own words.

Now my daughter has been listening to it every night before bed and often I play it early in the morning to gentle wake her before kindergarten.

There are some classic recorded poems here such as "The Raven" by Poe, "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, "The Tyger" by William Blake and "Casey at the Bat" by Earnst L. Thayer.

There are also some very nice multicultural poems recorded such as "Eagle Poem" by Joy Harjo, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes, and perhaps my favorite poem in the collection "Okay, Brown Girl, Okay" by James Berry which is reassuring, touching, and can speak to everyone about what it's like to be different among other people.

Not all of the poems are included on the CD--some are just included in the book. Familiar poems and poets in the book only are "from Macbeth" by Shakespeare, "The Tale of Custard the Dragon" by Ogden Nash, "Frodo's Song in Bree" by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Land of Counterpane" by Robert Louis Stevenson, from "The Bed Book" by Sylvia Plath, "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" by Eugene Field, and "Letter to a Bee" by Emily Dickinson among many others.

In all there are 95 poems. Some of them recorded and/or published for the first time. The illustration are delightful and done by three different artist with different styles. They are Judy Love, Wendy Rasmussen, and Paula Zinngrabe Wendland.

This book/CD combo is a winner. It's very educational, fun, and will be enjoyed by the whole family.

My child is 3 1/2 and loves this book, as do I. While she's not into the CD YET, she loves sitting w/me and exploring the poems which are neither too complex or too simple. There are classics and more modern works and they've done a wonderful job finding an assortment that represent various ways that poetry is used in other literary works (ex. excerpts from Macbeth and "Lord of the Rings"). I'm not a poetry expert, so I love that there are poets and writers of whom I recognize such as Robert Frost, Nikki Giovanni, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe and that it introduces me and my child to others who I don't recognize. A great way to introduce poetry to your kids.

Elise Paschen (ed.), Poetry Speaks to Children (Sourcebooks Inc., 2005)

A collection of poems written to, or about, children with an accompanying fifty-track CD (most tracks are of the poems themselves, though a few are the poets talking about the inspiration for one piece or another). While a number of these fall into bona fide chestnut status, kids who are being exposed to poetry for the first time won't be aware of that, and that old black magic should work just fine on them. For older readers, it's fun to have a whole bunch of this sort of thing compiled into one volume (with its whimsical illustrations, sometimes almost as fun as the poems themselves). Recommended. ****

`War makes you do such things/ as keeping an IV running on a dead body all night/ so his neighboring wounded buddy/ won't give up until he can be MedEvaced/ to a field hospital/ the next lonely morning.'-from poem number 12 by Grady Harp

There is no better way to describe Grady Harp's short but powerful poetry collection, enhanced by Stephen Freedman's evocative clay sculptures, than to quote the author himself. He states that `these poems represents one physician's survival kit in Vietnam.'

While death and destruction soared all around him, Dr. Harp, a dedicated healer of men, dealt with the antithesis of his calling with the sort of grieving that demanded from the mourner's heart the profound beauty of poetry to make some sense of it, or if not make sense of it, place the carnage he witnessed as a physician, in some sort of perspective.

Because of my lottery number back in 1969/1970 (352 I believe) I was not called to arms for the Vietnam War, but from then to now I have been touched by its senseless waste of braver men than me.

My often-arrogant attitude when I was young, rebellious, revolutionary, reactionary, and maybe too artsy-fartsy for my own good (not one of these things in and of itself was wrong or ignoble, well maybe the arrogance, which could have been as certifiably screwed up as our then war policy), presented me with an artificial viewpoint of that war.

I experienced the Vietnam War peripherally in real time and later re-imagined through Francis Ford Coppola's grand opera cinematique "Apocalypse Now," Michael Cimino's near cinema-verite "The Deer Hunter," and Oliver Stone's heart-wrenching melodrama "Platoon."

Still, as moving as those experiences were, nothing has quite moved me as much as Grady Harp's up-close-and-personal experience with pain so complex, yet so simple and unadorned and, ultimately, pure.

"War Songs" deserves, no, is obligated to be a perennial. What its poems say about war is as constant in our consciousness as thirteen-year-old Anne Frank's diary entries and Alex Haley's simple examination of his family's roots from African royalty to American slavery.

No, it's not easy to make sense of the evil some visit upon others. But may we ever be reminded. May the poet's voice ring through with simple, anguish-filled, agenda-free observations, so that we may learn from our pasts in an effort to better our future.

Hopefully, Doctor Harp will re-release "War Songs" so that we may all have a copy in our library for the ever-resonant poetry, and for the constant reminder that we are human beings.
Looker: A Novel

Grady Harp has written 20 poems about his experience as a physician in Vietnam-- a place that few Americans could have found on a map if their lives had depended on it before that awful ill-fated war that still haunts us. It appears that Harp wrote them with no thought of ever having them published. (We are grateful he did, however.) He says in an eloquent essay that he wrote the poems as a diary: "If I could arrange the day's events in poetic form, my attention could be focused on the poem, resolving form and verse while actual atrocities could be codified, then put away for now, allowing me to go on." Mr. Harp's collaborator is the potter Stephen Freedman who is photographed creating clay pieces that make a statement, as he says in his essay, in "the only language I know well enough to communicate emotion this close to the souls of all of us."

Accessible and short, the poems often start with a harmless enough image, soldiers having a beer, a comrade talking, a "happy laugh," and end with devastation and death. I have read these poems again and again. Two of them are seared in my brain: Number 16, about a favorite Vietnamese nurse who "wasted all her patients with a stolen M16" and Number 12 that shows so much compassion. Like all good poetry, it speaks for itself and is much better read than paraphrased.

War makes you do such things
as keeping an IV running on a dead body all night
so his neighboring wounded buddy
won't give up until he can be MedEvaced
to a field hospital
the next lonely morning.

I heard a lot of one-way conversations
at night
in Vietnam.

While these poems may have been written to keep one army physician sane, they speak to the universal: the awfulness of war, the suffering and dying of men just about to live and of course are as relevant in 2007, almost 40 years later, as the day they were written. They rise to the level of fine literature and deserve to be compared to the writing of Walt Whitman and Rupert Brooke, both of whose works I thought of when I read Mr. Harp's poems.

Forget the naysayers! Harp is fantastic. This poor man is under constant attack. There are many people who are envious of his standing. Don't fall prey to their comments. He is a genius and should be honored as one!

I'm a pet groomer who prefers animals over people ... most of the time. But then I hear of people like Grady Harp and Steven Freedman and I immediately warm up to humans again. There are still good people out there!

I'm not as affluent with words as Dr. Harp's other reviewers, but I know what I like, and I like this book. Reading the book after first learning about the author's personal experience in Vietnam added a pathos to the experience that may not have occurred if it weren't for the conditions under which he wrote this divine book, and later helped his friend sculpt the clay into which they poured all their heartache and painful memories.

The war, the dead, the wounded, the return home, the meeting of hearts and souls between Dr. Harp and artist Freedman, and the poetry written on dark, frightening, pain-filled nights in Vietnam--poetry that came from the depths of Harp's tortured soul--all blended together like a symphony of love, love of two men for their fallen brothers.

That miraculous blend of powerful, yet tragic, circumstances and heroic men created this masterpiece of a book ... a book that not only healed the surgeon and the artist, but helped heal the minds of many of the walking wounded who returned from that horrible war, and also helped their families understand more of what they had gone through.

God bless you, Dr. Harp and Mr. Freedman, for your selfless collaboration, for having such a deep capacity to love, and for truly caring. Your own personal healing was an unexpected blessing ... a reward for your selflessness, I like to think.

I wish there were a book that would open the hearts of people who are cruel to animals in the way this book opened the hearts of people who previously were "cruel" to our vets ... mostly because they didn't understand what happened "over there" ... any more than some people don't understand the importance of pets and what happens to them "out there." - Dora Dalrymple

I just read a copy of this book, loaned from a friend.

I'm too emotional now to write a good review. I cried like a baby when I read it, but they were healing tears. My father passed away recently without my ever understanding the horror he had suffered in Viet Nam.

I wish I had had this book to share with him; then perhaps we could have talked. It might have helped him too.

I've tried to get a copy of this book for myself, but it's out of print and everyone who owns one must treasure it for himself.

Thanks Mr. Harp for your sensitive, healing book that helped me and so many others, I'm sure. Please try to bring this book out again.

I absolutely love this book. It has such a great message, and I agree with a lot of the other reviewers that the message is wonderful for both kids and adults.

The illustrations are wonderfully simple, and I really like how there are few words per page. This book makes for a great read aloud book for pre-schoolers. I read this book recently in front of my class of 4 and 5-year-olds and they clapped at the triumphant ending of the book...they were so happy for the missing piece!

Shel Silverstein's representation of human relationships and the many "holes" that people often have is very astute. I think the subtleties of the different personalities might be over the head of children, but most adults will see just how spot on he is.

I really really can't celebrate this book enough.

This classic book was really written for children, but it has a powerful message for people of all ages!

The drawings are simple but effective, and the story is one that we all can relate to. The Missing Piece starts out alone and is looking for someone or something to complete it. By the end of the story, The Missing Piece realizes he doesn't need anyone to complete him. He is already complete.

This is a very quick read that can help build the confidence of a young child, and can help adults regain the confidence they may have lost somewhere along the way!

This was a gift to me after a divorce. The content is simple yet profound and I love to share it with my children in hopes that they too will know that relationships are at their healthiest when people are whole and complete, rather than half of a whole like a friendship necklace (to the chagrin of tweeners everywhere!) ;) I now share this with others who are going through relationship troubles or struggle with their self-worth.

A person who was one of the most influential in my life gave this to me as a gift. After reading the book, the gesture impacted me that much more. I buy this for anyone that means something to me. This type of book should be shared by all. Silverstein is a master who I still feel isn't talked about enough.

Don't forget 'The Missing Piece'!

I LOVE this book. What a simple way of viewing the process of breakups and of finding meaningful relationships! Great for readers of all ages.

It's classic Engelbreit at her best. Exquisite detail in the drawings. It's a book to savor alone, read aloud to children and share the pages, or just keep it enticingly on your coffee table.

This is a classic. The art work is very nice and it will be a great read every Christmas with the kids.

This version of "The Night Before Christmas" is by far the best illustrated edition I have ever seen. The artwork is incredible. My children love looking at all the vibrant, detailed pictures, and I even pause while reading the story so I can look at the pictures too. It seems like I find something new in the artwork everytime we read the story. Make sure to get a copy of the book for each of your children. You will want to pass this down to them so they can read it to their own children some day, and I would hate to have to choose who would get this beautiful book, and deal with the ramifications of the one who did not!

Book is so beautifully illustrated, it does the classic poem justice. It made a great "first christmas" gift.

This is a beautifully done book. It is the same classic story we all know and love, and the illustrations are brilliant. Mary Engelbreit's drawings fill the page, are colorful and detailed. Everytime you look at the pictures you will notice a small detail that you've previously missed. My daughter is 3 months old, but when I read this to her, she actually stared at the page with wide eyes as if she was amazed at all the colors. This is certainly one book I will buy for my friends' children, and I highly recommend it.