Collected by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters. 2007. Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry. Illustrated by Polly Dunbar. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Yolen and Peters have assembled a collection that includes perennial children’s favorites such as A.A. Milne, Rosemary Wells and Jack Prelutsky, while exposing children to the work of classics such as Gertrude Stein and Langston Hughes. The collection’s true merit, however, lies in the simplicity of each piece, which makes Here’s a Little Poem the perfect choice for introducing very young children to the world of poetry.
Of particular note are poems like Jill Townsend’s “Dressing Too Quickly,” which takes a typical act – getting dressed – and a child’s easy mistake and turns it into something fun and memorable:
Too many buttons / What a long zip. / Velcro to fasten. / Mind you don’t slip. / Dress more slowly. / You’ll fall in a minute! / You’ve one trouser leg / And two legs in it. {p. 14}
In Tony Mitton’s “Rickety Train Ride” children can vicariously climb aboard a train complete with rhyme, repetition and alliteration:
I’m taking the train to Ricketywick / Clickety clickety clack / I’m sat in my seat / With a sandwich to eat / As I travel the trickety track. / It’s an ever so rickety trickety train, / And I honestly thickety think / That before it arrives / At the end of the line / It will tip up my drippety drink. {p. 78-9}
The poems in this collection, through imperfect grammar and lack of punctuation, also demonstrates to children that poetry needn’t be intimidating – to read or write.
Another element that makes Here’s a Little Poem a standout are Dunbar’s illustrations; each drawing captures the feel and essence of the poem it accompanies. The art that takes to the page alongside Marilyn Singer’s “Beach Time” portrays a family outing, emulating the acts that take place in the poem, while the dark, spare illustration for Dennis Lee’s “Silvery” is an evocative and moody recreation of the poem’s nighttime atmosphere. Overall, the art isn’t polished exactly, but therein lies its charm. Children familiar with Lauren Child’s art in the Charlie and Lola series should take to Dunbar’s work immediately and without looking back.
