April Muse-ings
By Kathleen Whalin
Children's Librarian
YORK VILLAGE - In 1996, the Academy of American Poets established April as National Poetry Month.
T.S. Eliot wrote, "April is the cruelest month."
The academy hopes that National Poetry Month lessens that effect.
I am a lover of poetry and escaped high school and college English classes with that love intact. I read it, purchase it, review it and recite it during story hours. I most enjoy its surprise factor - how a few well-chosen words can completely change your view of an ordinary object or express an emotion you've experienced.
I am particularly fond of children's poetry. The constraints of having to use words and images that children can understand in ways that make those words and images seem fresh makes for extraordinary poems. The essence of a good poem, to me, is its minimalism - its use of no more words than are really necessary. The list of children's poetry books I love could fill a tome.
Here are 10 of my favorites. I invited you to come, search our shelves, and find your own favorites.
"The Dream Keeper and Other Poems" by Langston Hughes. Hughes' poems reach for the stars.
"A Family of Poems" edited by Caroline Kennedy. Drawn from her own childhood experience of collecting poems for her mother, Kennedy's collection is thoughtful and endearing. John Muth's watercolors sing.
"The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear, illustrated by Jan Brett. Romance from the king of nonsense.
"A Poke in the I," edited by Paul Janeczko. Janeczko's collection of concrete poems are brought to life with Chris Raschka's brilliant paintings.
"The Random House Book of Poetry for Children," edited by Jack Prelutsky. From Mother Goose to Prelutsky himself, this book combined with Arnold Lobel's illustrations offer a comprehensive introduction to rhymes for children.
"Side by Side: Poems to Read Together," edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Poems for each season are accompanied by Hilary Knight's ethereal illustrations.
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Illustrated by Susan Jeffers - soft images that haunt the reader no many how times it is read.
"When We Were Very Young" by A.A. Milne. Winnie-the-Pooh was introduced to the world in a series of gentle poems about childhood.
"William Butler Yeats" edited by Jonathan Alison. If I have a favorite poet, it is Yeats, all fire and imagery.
