Climb into My Lap: First Poems

A series of poems written to evoke the issues with which children struggle--identity, growing independence, relationships--focus on familiar experiences such as taking a bath, brushing one's teeth, and reveling in worlds of make-believe.

PreSchool-Grade 2-As in Side by Side (S & S, 1988), Hopkins offers a group of poems from previously published and newly commissioned sources that displays his sure sense of poetics and child appeal. Each selection, accompanied by Brown's gentle watercolor illustrations, expresses a sense of the wonder in the everyday world whether conversing with a new snowman ("Use words that are pleasing,/Like: freezing/And snow" from "How to Talk to Your Snowman" by Beverly McLoughland) or going to bed ("The house is sleeping/She has closed her eyes/Dark are her windows/Dark are the skies" from "The House Is Sleeping" by Lillian Fisher). Climb into My Lap extends a collective invitation for children to do just that. Once accepted, the poetry, as good writing always does, will make the ordinary world seem extraordinary to both readers and listeners.
Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A companion to Hopkins's Side by Side: Poems to Read Together, this confection-filled collection for younger readers seems slight in comparison. There are plenty of strong poems but few discoveries. The best work is the tried-and-true: the tongue-twisting fun of "Jabberwocky" and the carefully attuned language of Karla Kuskin and David McCord. But many other works lack freshness, as in a poem that patronizingly begins, "See, I can do it all myself/ With my own little brush!" Nancy Willard's original and inventive "Magic Story for Falling Asleep" is the only poem in a section called "Worlds of Make-Believe" that doesn't feature cliched images of "small and merry" elves, fairies, gnomes or mermaids sailing on leaves or tiptoeing in and out through the flowers. Brown (From Lullaby to Lullaby) executes a fair number of Norman Rockwell-type subjects (e.g., four kids in a claw-footed tub, being bathed by a dad in suspenders and jeans), especially in the "Secret Places" and "It's So Funny" sections, but she spikes her work with quirky cartoonlike creatures and whimsical flourishes (e.g., in the corner of a grandmother's living room, a toy donkey dressed in doll clothes sits propped in a chair). Despite the inviting art, this long-awaited collection ultimately disappoints. Ages 2-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.