A gift from grandma when my son was 2, I used to read these poems to my son when he was very young as an "introduction to poetry".This book is filled with classic poems (by poets such as Blake, Hughes, Milne, etc.) that are just perfect for children. But all the while, I always realized that reading these poems to my child was more for me than for him, as I couldn't really hope that my son would be half as interested in words and lit as I am, and "good parents" share poetry with their children, right?

I couldn't believe what happened the other day: my almost 9-year-old boy was searching for his Encyclopedia of Star Wars to get the correct name for the home-planet of one of his action figures one minute, and 5 minutes later, he was reading this poetry book! He was giggling, reading aloud, calling me in to "listen to this one". He read the entire book, picked out his favorites, and shared them! I really didn't think this book would get any more mileage....

I think this is the best recommendation a child's poetry book could have, isn't it? More interesting than Star Wars?

Oh, and by the way, from an English teacher's point of view, these are high-quality poems! ( )