Asana and the Animals - Softcover

Grace Nichols

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0744554985 ISBN 13: 9780744554984

Publisher: Gardners Books, 1998

Synopsis

These are the rhymes of a little girl called Asana, who celebrates the animals that she knows and likes and dreams about - from a caterpillar to a Jersey cow, a hedgehog to a jogging ocelot, a giraffe to her grandmother's cat. There are 17 poems in all.

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2. Seventeen poems about animals are presented in a childlike voice. With large print and bright illustrations, the book invites participation. Adams's lino-cut illustrations fill double-page spreads with color and movement, and her animals, from spiders to alligators, seem to grin benignly. The first poem, "Pit-A-Pat-A-Parrot," uses rhythm and assonance to great effect and reads aloud wonderfully. Unfortunately, in other selections the rhymes are strained, rhythms change in mid-stanza, and descriptions tend toward cliche. Even the poems that mimic traditional verse, e.g., "Little Asana sat on a sofa/eating her peas and rice," quickly collapse into nonsense. Children might take more pleasure in creating their own animal verses after listening to Mary Ann Hoberman's A Fine Fat Pig (HarperCollins, 1991; o.p.) or J. Patrick Lewis's A Hippopotamusn't (Puffin, 1994).?Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 2-6. Nichols has coedited popular children's anthologies of Caribbean poetry and nursery rhymes. Here are her own 17 simple verses about young Asana and the animals she pets and dreams about. She likes her grandmother's comfortable cat with its soft furry back, but most of Asana's animals are less cuddly. The pet she would like for her birthday is something a little scary, "a wee bit hairy"; and in her variant of a well-known nursery rhyme, Little Asana sits on a sofa and likes the small spider that snuggles up beside her. She dreams of riding a giraffe and meeting a mermaid. The words are wonderfully physical, with lots of sounds and actions for kids to join in ("Pit-a-pat-a-parrot . . . while you scritch and scratch a parrot"); the type is big and clear; and Adams' linocut illustrations in tropical colors, big and bold and rhythmic, make this a joyful book for sharing and reading aloud. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Gardners Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0744554985
• ISBN 13: 9780744554984
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 25