Book Review: Here's A Little Poem

I am not always enthusiastic about my children's book choices. But Here's a Little Poem, selected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Peters and illustrated by Polly Dunbar is one I don't mind reading (that much) even when I'm dead tired at bedtime.

This collection of poems capture the everyday moments of childhood perfectly. When your child is about to throw a tantrum, you can recite "The No-No Bird"(or discuss it later) and my children love chorusing "Bananas and Cream" while baking banana cake. Whether it's swinging, playing in mud, taking a bath, struggling to put your clothes on correctly, celebrating a birthday, and going to sleep, there's a poem that fits that situation. There are also many poems that explore feelings--be it the conflicted emotions of having a new sibling, the revelation of being small, the annoyance of having a younger brother, and the tender love/impatience a grandmother has while putting the baby to sleep. The universal themes of childhood, while not new, seem fresh with Polly Dunbar's breathtaking illustrations.* The bright splashes of color and the whimsical drawings of exuberant children and the world that evolves around them is done with careful detail to supplement the original beauty of the poem. The dazzling illustrations of cakes and ice creams that rivals Arnold Lobel's will tantalize both you and your children's taste buds. And unlike other anthologies that have several poems squashed in one page, there's only one poem per page or on occasion, a poem stretched out to two pages which is perfect for a young child's limited attention span. Did I mention that I even love the font the book is written in?

Though this collection is meant to be an introduction to poetry for little ones, as a former teacher, I still see this being popular in a grade-school setting. There's several poems I would have used to teach imagery and figurative language. Not to mention that this anthology highlights many poetry greats such as Langston Hughes, Paul B. Janeczko, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other popular authors like Margaret Wise Brown and A.A. Milne. My only real complaint would be that I noticed that while there are several poems about spring and summer, there's none for fall and winter. I think a few more poems that covered the rest of the seasons would have been a great addition. But overall, this wonderful primer to poetry will be one that your kids will want to hang on to for a long time. I have to echo bookoholic Esme Raji Codell's recommendation that this is an ideal book for a baby shower. Though I think kids start really enjoying this book when they turn two.

*Of related note, below is some information about Polly Dunbar's children's book, Penguin.


She both wrote and illustrated it. It is a love story about a child and his toy Penguin. Of note, there is also a blue lion that swallows the boy before the penguin saves him.


I love these facial expressions. I think Dunbar must have studied a tantrum in action.


For older readers, The Random House of Poetry for Children, selected by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel was a favorite in my former fifth and sixth grade classes.