Today’s recommendation is for teachers, parents, and kids who enjoy poetry and would like better access to it.

Recently someone, a boy or young man, or the young man’s mother donated The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, poems selected by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel to my Little Free Library.  I know a boy had once owned the book, for on the title page is a sticker (a very nice, padded one) of a baseball player rounding the bases, running for all he’s worth. Regardless of the reason, the young man gave up the book (You can see I have decided he outgrew it.), I was very happy to have it and am reading many of the poems in it.

Using it, as parents and teachers will want to do is easy thanks to the subject index in the back. For example, I looked up the word “books” in the subject index and found three entries. In the first, “The Reason I like Chocolate” by Nikki Giovanni, books are mentioned as something else the narrator likes…”mostly ’cause they just make me happy/ and I really like being happy.” The second entry is a celebration of the library, described as…”Everything that books can bring/You’ll find within those walls./ A world is there for you to share/ When adventure calls.// You cannot tell its magic/By the way the building looks,/ But there’s a wonderment within it,/ The wonderment of books.” (“The Library” by Barbara A. Huff.) All of these poems could be used in a lesson asking students to write on the glories or friendship of B*O*O*K*S !

Other helpful indexes are the one of first lines and titles, and the one of authors. This book is arranged so well for teachers and parents to use. Another nice feature is the arrangement of poems by themes, laid out in the Table of Contents. I am sure the young owner of the book first looked at “Nonsense! Nonsense!” or maybe opened first to “Dogs and Cats and Bears and Bats” or “I’m Hungry!”  Many delightful poems are found in these sections.

Finally, a full-page thematic poem and illustration introduces each section. As two hedgehodge-or-bear-ladies, drawn by Arnold Nobel, stand in the wind, and we view their backs, bonnet-ribbons stirred by the breezes as they gaze out to sea, the poem on the next page, presumably written by Jack Perlutsky, “Nature Is,” introduces the inclusion of such favorites as William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” and “All Thingnders Bright and Beautiful” by Cecil Francis Alexander.  Nature is not only presented as beautiful, but also as cruel as in Christina Rossetti’s “Last Rights.” Just the first section alone is a splendid collection of poems!

Everything about this book begs me to keep it as a reference, perhaps to look up a poem I remember the first line of, or a humorous poem for the opening of class, or for that children’s poetry class I dream of teaching to a homeschooled group, or for use in a poetry workshop. I will at least keep it until I have savored one section/unit at a time for my own appreciation and enjoyment.