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Dear Book Lovers, Welcome! I am delighted that you have found The Through the Looking Glass blog. For over twenty years I reviewed children's literature titles for my online journal, which came out six times a year. Every book review written for that publication can be found on the Through the Looking Glass website (the link is below). I am now moving in a different direction, though the columns that I write are still book-centric. Instead of writing reviews, I'm offering you columns on topics that have been inspired by wonderful books that I have read. I tell you about the books in question, and describe how they have have impacted me. This may sound peculiar to some of you, but the books that I tend to choose are ones that resonate with me on some level. Therefore, when I read the last page and close the covers, I am not quite the same person that I was when first I started reading the book. The shift in my perspective might be miniscule, but it is still there. The books I am looking are both about adult and children's titles. Some of the children's titles will appeal to adults, while others will not. Some of the adult titles will appeal to younger readers, particularly those who are eager to expand their horizons.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Poetry Friday: A Review of Poetry for Young People: Animal Poems

When I first started to read and enjoy poetry, many of the poems that attracted me were about animals. I learned The Owl and the Pussycat by heart and had a grand time reading The Tyger out loud with my father, trying to make the poem sound as dramatic as possible. Today's book of poetry brings these two poems and many others to readers who enjoy whiling away some time with some wonderful poetry animals.

Poetry for Young People: Animal Poems
Edited by John Hollander
Illustrated by Simona Mulazzani
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 9 and up
Sterling, 2004, 978-1-4027-0926-5
Animals and humans have been interacting in all kinds of ways for thousands of years, and for this reason humans have been writing about animals ever since they acquired the ability to write. Some writers and poets have told stories about animals or described them, while others have tried to imagine what it would be like to be an animal, seeing the world through an animal’s eyes.
   For this collection of poems John Hollander has brought together poems about animals that people in North America, Europe, and East Asia have written in the last four centuries. Some of the poems tell the story of talking animals. For example, in The Owl and the Pussycat we hear about an unlikely pair of lovers who sail away “in a pea-green boat” and are married by a “piggy-wig” that has “a ring at the end of his nose.”
   In Fable by Ralph Waldo Emerson we meeting a talking squirrel who gets into a quarrel with a mountain. The squirrel admits that the mountain is “doubtless very big,” but that does not mean that the squirrel is not important too. After all, a squirrel is “spry” and can “crack a nut,” which a mountain most certainly cannot do.
   Other poems provide readers with a description of an animal, helping us to understand what the animal is like. In The Eagle by Lord Alfred Tennyson, we hear about the bird that lives “Close to the sun in lonely lands,” and that “watches from his mountain walls. / And like a thunderbolt he falls.”  Though it is not grand and regal, the jelly fish that Marianne Moore describes in her poem, A Jelly-Fish is still an extraordinary creature. In her opinion the jelly fish is “a fluctuating charm” that is both visible and invisible.
   Throughout this excellent book all the poems are prefaced by a note from the editor. These notes provide readers with further information about the poet and the poet’s intentions, and some of the notes also tell us a little about the poem and its history.

   This title is one in an excellent series of books of poetry published by Sterling Publishing.

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