The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems - Hardcover

Janeczko, Paul B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763681687 ISBN 13: 9780763681685

Publisher: Candlewick, 2019

Synopsis

Toast a marshmallow, be a tree in winter, read braille — Paul B. Janeczko and Richard Jones invite you to enjoy an assortment of poems that inform and inspire.

Today I walked outside and spied
a hedgehog on the hill.
When she and I met eye to eye,
she raised up straight and still.

Be they practical (how to mix a pancake or how to bird-watch) or fanciful (how to scare monsters or how to be a snowflake), the poems in this book boast a flair and joy that you won’t find in any instruction manual. Poets from Kwame Alexander to Pat Mora to Allan Wolf share the way to play hard, to love nature, and to be grateful. Soft, evocative illustrations will encourage readers to look at the world with an eye to its countless possibilities.

Contributors include:

Kwame Alexander
Calef Brown
Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Margarita Engle
Ralph Fletcher
Douglas Florian
Helen Frost
Martin Gardner
Charles Ghigna
Nikki Grimes
Anna E. Jordan
Karla Kuskin
Irene Latham
J. Patrick Lewis
Marjorie Maddox
Elaine Magliaro
Pat Mora
Christina Rossetti
Monica Shannon
Marilyn Singer
Robert Louis Stevenson
Charles Waters
April Halprin Wayland
Steven Withrow
Allan Wolf

About this title

About the Author

Paul B. Janeczko (1945–2019) was a poet and teacher who edited numerous award-winning poetry anthologies for young people, including A Poke in the I, A Kick in the Head, A Foot in the Mouth, and The Death of the Hat, all of which were illustrated by Chris Raschka; Firefly July, illustrated by Melissa Sweet; and The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems, illustrated by Richard Jones. He also wrote Worlds Afire; Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto; Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing; Double Cross: Deception Techniques in War; The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles, a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults; and Secret Soldiers: How the U.S. Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis.

Richard Jones has worked for more than twenty years in the creative arts. He is the illustrator of numerous picture books, including Bird Builds a Nest and The Squirrels’ Busy Year, both written by Martin Jenkins. Richard Jones lives in Devon, England.

Reviews

PreS-Gr 3-Janeczko's latest anthology is a cozy collection of humorous and thought-provoking "how-to" poems from contemporary writers, including Kwame Alexander, Margarita Engle, J. Patrick Lewis, and Nikki Grimes, as well as poems from Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, and more. This collection thoughtfully compiles poems that range in focus from the fantastical, to the natural, to the domestic. The book opens with "How to Build a Poem" by Charles Ghigna and sets the tone with the closing lines "...words that leave us/wanting more." Throughout the book, poems are often grouped thematically. For instance, the poems "On the Fourth of July" by Marilyn Singer and "Fireworks" by Anna E. Jordan occupy adjacent pages of the same spread. Jones's illustrations tenderly bring each poem to life. Children are invited to see themselves in many of the earth-toned, textured scenes. The final scene depicts an empty chair with an abandoned book on it-The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog-and, through the doorway, a girl and her dog stepping out into the world. Overall, Jones's illustrations achieve a strong balance of white space and image, and the full-bleed spreads connect the poems into a single, unified work. A great pick for read-alouds or for sustained, one-on-one reading. VERDICT This anthology is a solid pick for public and school collections large and small.-Erica Ruscio, Madison Public Library, WIα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0763681687
• ISBN 13: 9780763681685
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jones Richard
• Number of pages: 48