Talking Like the Rain: A Read-To-Me Book of Poems

A collection of poems and illustrations celebrating the lives of children includes works by A. A. Milne, Edward Lear, Robert Louis Stevenson, and many new voices and is divided into sections on Day and Night, Just for Fun, and others.

Kindergarten-Grade 4-- This collection is clearly the product of editors and an illustrator who know poetry and appreciate its bone-deep beauty. Dyer's watercolors reflect the wonder in each selection. Imaginative as the poetry selections are, her pictures dance off the page. The book is divided into nine sections; each poem within each section seems exactly right, and all are timeless. Within the sections and between them, the poems flow seamlessly. The poets range over time, and include Stevenson, Milne, Lear, Janeczko, Ciardi, Livingston, and Bodeker to name a few. Three poems about night, set against a dark city skyline, are followed by four lullabies, including Jane Yolen's lovely ``Shepherd's Night Count.'' The book opens with a quote from Isak Dinesen: ``Why they should feel verse to be like rain I do not know. It must have been, however, an expression of applause, since in Africa rain is always longed for and welcomed.'' So is this book. --Kathleen Whalin, Belfast Public Library, ME
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In both content and design this is an unusually striking anthology. The title, from Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa ("Speak again. Speak like rain"), provides a selection basis for the more than 120 poems, handily grouped in such sections as "Wind and Weather" and "Just for Fun." Many of the verses are well-known in the canon of children's literature--Hilaire Belloc's "The Early Morning"; Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat"--but there are intriguing additions. Wallace Stevens's "John Smith and His Son, John Smith," for example, delights with its vigorous rhythm "Voila la vie, la vie, la vie, / And-a-rummy-tummy-tum / And-a-rummy-tummy-tum."Dyer's vibrantly colored, splendidly detailed illustrations, some of this gifted artist's finest work, pick up elements from well-known art associated with children's poetry, a device that imparts a soothing quality to these captivating pages. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

More like a ``second'' than a ``first book of poems,'' this large, generously illustrated volume will serve children from preschool through much of their elementary years. The Kennedys' combined experience as poet, educators, and writers is evident in the variety and depth of the selections here, topically grouped (``Play,'' ``Birds, Bugs, and Beasts,'' etc.) and ranging from the classical (Stevenson and Lear) through folk rhymes and songs to a good assortment of more recent poets (Langston Hughes, David McCord, N. M. Bodecker). The more than 100 poems also include a nicely varied sprinkling of Ogden Nash, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Aldis, and numerous others, all illustrated in appealing, conscientiously multiethnic watercolors with an old-fashioned flavor (several recall Jessie Wilcox Smith or the Petershams) but with some contemporary touches as well. A good addition to the poetry section that would also make a fine gift. Index. (Poetry. 3-10) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.