David McCord (1)

This was a gift that my son's fourth-grade teacher gave to all of her students. We read it together over the span of 3 nights and bonded over our shared loathing of it. We decided that we are very lucky to never have read the Little House on the Prairie series, as one of the pieces in this collection of short stories and poems is a little narrative about a special Christmas in which Laura & Mary create a beautiful button string for baby Carrie. My son & I decided that enduring this story was show more officially the biggest waste of time we had ever experienced. The other stories were almost as boring, and included in the collection are the lyrics to Silent Night & a few Langston Hughes poems. Strange.

We actually enjoyed "The Christmas Coat" and I appreciated Hughes's poem about his connection to the "dark" wise man, but if you see this in your Scholastic catalog with a 10-cent price tag and think it'd make a great gift to your students, think again. If your student actually takes the time to read it, they will get the idea that books are best used as sleeping aids or kindling.
No offense to Morgan's teacher (we love her); I just want to spare others from wasting their bonus points. show less

Summary:

Every Time I Climb a Tree is a book comprised of a series of poems. All the poems are easy and short to read. They range in a variety of subjects that are interesting to children during their childhood years. A lot of them are like short stories or have a lot of rhyming involved. There are poems about climbing a tree, glowworms, butterflies, imaginary characters, animals, birds, household objects, drawing, wind, nature, food, seasons, etc. All of them are easy to understand and very show more relatable. Each poem also incorporates at least one picture, if not more.

Comments (opinions/arguments):

I really enjoyed this collection of poems because their very fun, engaging and goofy. Many of them tell short stories, such as ‘Isabel Jones & Curabel Lee’ and others have funny rhyming like ‘Glowworm.’ I really liked that the majority of them are short and easy to understand. Many of them have only a few verses, but still manage to be cute, funny and meaningful. This book is also a great collection of poems because each one is relatable to every child. Because the poems are all about child like subjects, many children would enjoy reading them. I don’t necessarily believe that this book contains one central message. I believe that it serves as a guide for children learning about poems, imagination and nature. I also really enjoyed the fun childlike drawings incorporated for the children. show less

All Small is a book compiled of many different poems. The one poem that I focused on is titled "Tomorrows". This poem is about how each day comes and goes so quickly. I think the big idea of this poem is to live and enjoy each day at a time. I liked this poem for two reasons. The first reason I liked it was because of how it ended. The author ends the poem by saying "And so....and so..." The reader can now get a sense of how days just continues, today turns into yesterday and tomorrow turns show more into today, etc. The second reason I liked this poem was because the illustration used shows a little boy in bed looking out the window, but it is actually daytime outside and not bedtime. To me as the reader, it seems the author is portraying the little boy thinking "Wow, tomorrow is here already? It was just yesterday." Illustrations add meaning to the text and can also allow the reader to add their own interpretation. show less

A very mixed bag of American and English light verse, most of it genuinely funny or at least witty, most of it nineteenth century or later, though there is at least one bit of Shakespeare. Organized topically.