I picked this up because I'm a fan of Ormerod, especially [b:Lizzie Nonsense|3403331|Lizzie Nonsense|Jan Ormerod|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327948959s/3403331.jpg|3443469]. Well, she did good work here, but I have to be honest and say I don't think the illustrations are amazing.

But what is wonderful is this book as a whole. Even the littlest children need their own poetry collections, and this deserves to be one of them. There are enough short poems in here that every tot will find some to 'hug to his heart' (as Carl Sandburg would say). They're melodious, and accessible, and yet still richer and more meaningful than those that the vastly over-rated Prelutsky anthologizes.

As Lillian Moore says in her introduction Children... [who] have poems in their lives are being nourished in a very special way... poems are more than just arrangements of words,... [they nourish children] in the power to connect with the feelings of others; to hear the music of language; to see the details in the world around them more vividly, more truthfully." "There is no special voice for reading poems and there need be no special time. Poem time is every day - any time - now."

A few of these poems were known to me, as were many of the poets, from all my other reading and education. But most were delightful discoveries, such as:

from If You Find a Little Feather

If you find a little feather,
a little white feather,
a soft and tickly feather,
it's for you.

A feather is a letter
from a bird,
and it says,
"Think of me.
Do not forget me."

Beatrice Schenk de Regniers


" ( )

My copy is signed by the author during Christmas 1992. Lilian Moore died July 20, 2004 at age 95 in Seattle, WA. She was born in New York City on March 17, 1909. Circa 1992, Moore was living in Kerhonkson, NY. ( )