Animal Poems Book

Target audience : 2yrs-12yrs

summary -Poetry, animal subjects accompanied with pictures of those animals. Twenty three familiar animals to most children.

strengths/weaknesses - Of course every child seems to be fascinated with animals so why not read poetry to children with animals as the subjects.
These poems are dark and gloomy in nature.

Not my shadow I dislike,
But that sad Sunlight
Creeping so
Week across
The winter-
Weary snow:

All of the poems are somewhat sad, and gloomy, bringing up concepts of dearth and despair.

personal critique - I would not recommend this book, while the author has published other books with acclaim, this one is not for me. I find the poems not really suitable for children, I prefer lighter fair and sweet lyrical rhymes. These are much more adult in nature, and the tone and intimations are dark and somber, gritty and depressing. I would find it difficult to read this to small children. I don't think the grade school child would comprehend the tone of the poems. The illustrations and the layout is for a young audience, perhaps they are the only market for animal poems. These animal poems are much more adult in nature.

illustrations - Ok, so the illustrations are the redeeming piece in this book. They are realistic, looking like photographs of paper mache and paper artworks and block printing. Each animal image is fresh, very textile in appearance and consuming one's imagination with the material and construction. I would consider using this book as an exemplar for students to create their own images of animals from paper cuts and pieces and then ask then to embellish the art work with their own poem.

notable awards - The author's other books have earned several awards The Horn Book, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. I suppose based on the strength of her other awards you could justify this purchase. It is just not one I particularly enjoy, the tone and tenor of the poetry is of despair, depression and futility. Really something I do not want to read to children, or expect them to appreciate on their own. The rosey optimism I prefer to share is not reflected here.