CAPSULE COMMENTS

March 29, 2007

Children's Poetry Books

April is National Poetry Month. Enjoy these and other poetry books that can be found in the Children’s Department at Rodman Public Library's main building:

I Heard It from Alice Zucchini: Poems about the Garden, by Juanita Havill

From the still chill of a winter night to the ra-ta-ta, ra-ta-ta, ra-ta-ta-too of a lively vegetable stew, these twenty whimsical poems celebrate the joys of a garden from start to finish. Join in the Pea Pod Chant, wander through the Rhubarb Forest, dance with the Dainty Doily Dill Weed, gossip with Alice Zucchini, and hold your breath on the pumpkin’s enchanted evening. Illustrated with magical paintings, this book will delight gardeners of all ages.

Tour America: A Journey through Poems and Art, by Diane Siebert

From New Hampshire’s formidable Mount Washington to San Francisco’s magnificent Golden Gate Bridge, the scenic treasures of the U.S. are brilliantly captured in this artistic tour de force. Siebert’s assured and thought-provoking poems celebrate some of America’s scenic treasures. Each turn of the page offers a surprise—whether it’s an impressionistic painting of Niagara Falls, a wild collage of Chicago’s famous El train, or an evocative tallgrass prairie landscape. Additional facts about each site and a list of art media are provided. The poems scan nicely as read alouds. For ages 9 and up.

There Is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me, by Alice Walker

In a beautifully poetic and gently provocative text, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Alice Walker, invites readers young and old to see the world—and our place in it—through new eyes. Glowing colors and radiant images accompany this joyous celebration of the connections and inter-connections between self, Nature, and creativity. For all ages of poetry lovers.

Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems, by Kristine O’Connell George

With honesty and humor, these poems capture memorable moments of the school year as seen through the eyes of a new middle school student. Poems in a variety of forms—ranging from haiku to free verse—are complemented by lively illustrations. Every middle school student will identify with the homework left on the table at home, the school dance, the hall pass, and other events in the life of a middle school teenager.

Ordinary Things: Poems from a Walk in Early Spring, by Ralph Fletcher

This fine collection of thirty-three poems reveal the extraordinary in the ordinary things found during a walk to and through the woods, and offer glimpses into how observation of the everyday fuels a young poet’s creativity. Clotheslines, stone walls, streams, birches, leaves—even a Volkswagen Beetle—shine in a different light when seen through the poet’s lens. For ages 12 and up.