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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, June 8, 2012

Poetry Friday - A review of Collected Poems for Children



Ted Hughes was a prolific writer who wrote several hundred poems for young readers, and who was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1984 until his dead in 1998. For today's poetry title I have reviewed an excellent collection of Ted Hughes' poems.

Ted Hughes
Illustrated by Raymond Briggs
Poetry
For ages 6 and up
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005, 978-0-374-31429-3
During his lifetime, Ted Hughes wrote hundreds of poems for young people. He was particularly fond of writing poems about animals, both real creatures like seals and skunks, and fantastical ones like the Loch Ness monster and the Mountain Dugong. He is probably most well known for his humorous verse, but he also wrote many poems that have a more serious and contemplative feel.
   In this collection, more than two hundred and fifty of Ted Hughes’ poems have been brought together to give readers a memorable reading adventure. The poems are arranged by volume, beginning with The Mermaid’s Purse, and ending with Season Songs. The poems at the beginning of the book are for younger children, while those in the later collection are better suited to more mature readers (including adults).
   Young children are going to love reading about the sea creatures that appear in the The Mermaid’s Purse collection. Here they will meet a ragworm, a poor creature that was once “all the rage,” but who was cruelly supplanted by fish, those animals who favor the “Fashion of Flounce.” On these pages they will also meet a mermaid and a sea monster. The latter’s appearance makes a child feel so terrified that he “cannot cry” and is “Completely numb.”
   In The Cat and the Cuckoo collection we meet familiar animals like the cow, mole, and donkey. Of course Ted Hughes manages to describe his subjects in wonderfully creative and often amusing ways. We find out that the humble shrew, despite its small size and very “tender, waggling nose,” is a temperamental creature that will, when it meets another of its kind, “fight to the death.” Another small furry beast, the mole, insists that it should always “travel by hole.” Though its sensitive nose is like “a beam of light” cutting through the darkness underground, its eyes are tiny and not very useful.
   Next we move on to Meet my Folks, which is where we get to know Grandpa, Brother Bert, and many others. Among other things, we learn that “ma” is a superlative cook who rustles up massive cakes for maharajas, “Whipped-Cream Goose,” and rattlesnake curry with “Crème de la Cactus.” Sister Jane is an honest to goodness bird, a “great big crow” who has to go about disguised so that no one knows what she really is.
   These three sections are followed by five others, ending with poems from What is truth? and Season Songs.
   Readers will be able to grow up with this book, reading the amusing poems at the beginning of the book when they are young, and exploring the more thoughtful and perhaps and demanding poems when they are older. This is a book to keep at hand, to dip into, and to enjoy at quiet moments.
   

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