Here's a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry
Eds. Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters; illustrated by Polly Dunbar
Candlewick; $21.99
112 pp.; ISBN-10: 0763631418

Review by Amy Brozio-Andrews

When you think of poetry, what comes to mind? High school English classes that seemed to last 40 years, not 40 minutes? Dusty old books that were assigned reading, books you'd have preferred to use as door-stops? Well, guess what? Poetry can be fun, for you and your little ones.

Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters' Here's a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry is a charming collection of children's poetry from the United States, Great Britain, the Caribbean, and Australia. It's sensibly arranged into several chapters that focus on the child, the world around her, all the things children see and do, and bedtime rhymes. From sweet and silly to serious and sublime, there's something for every mood in this child-centered anthology of new and classic poetry -- from Colin McNaughton's "Mum is Having a Baby!" in which the child indignantly wonders "What's she want another one for: WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ME?!" to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "The Swing" ("How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue?").

Yolen is of course a well-known writer of children's and young adult books; Fusek Peters is a poet and anthologist who has also written for children and young adults. Widely-recognized writers for children are represented here, as well as those less known for their children's work: Rosemary Wells and Jack Prelutsky, Lesléa Newman and Gertrude Stein, among others. Yolen and Fusek Peters' care in choosing works that represent a variety of voices and experiences is obvious; this first collection for children is a book that makes poetry fun and accessible, both in language and topic. These poems, most of which have traditional rhyme schemes, explore a great variety of metaphor, narrative, voice, and observations. John Agard's poem celebrates the wisdom and experience of age in "The Older the Violin the Sweeter the Tune." Aileen Fisher's "My Puppy" and Marci Ridlon's "Hamsters" explore what's nice about having a pet, while other poets examine the ups and downs of having siblings.

This is a truly lovely book, large enough for sharing comfortably on two laps for reading parents and looking children. The heavy paper will stand up to frequent reading and the text is artfully arranged within the full-page illustrations, making the book visually interesting to young children. Polly Dunbar's bright and sunny mixed media work is a great pairing for the diverse poetry that Yolen and Fusek Peters have collected. Expressive faces of children and small animals in the artwork gives life to the spoken poetry; the dusky reds and oranges in the background art for Clare Bevan's "Sleepy Song" and blues and greens for Dennis Lee's "Silverly" bring out the mood of these two end-of-the-day poems.

An index searchable by poem or poet rounds out the book, although an index of first lines would have been helpful (well, at least if you're anything like me… I can usually remember first lines but rarely titles: "What's the name of the one that goes…").

Full of short poems about things that are important to children (little brothers, grandmas, ice cream, puppies, mud), Here's a Little Poem is a versatile choice with poems good for reading aloud and getting silly with as well as more mellow verses for soothing bedtime reading.