The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury

A beautifully illustrated collection of poetry from the 20th century. The poems are organized into one or two-page spreads with cohesive themes and illustrations. The poems are fun and interesting, striking a balance between relevance to children and expansive themes. The accompanying art is lovely and often directly references the poems.

I really enjoyed this poetry collection! In this treasury of poem's, Jack Prelutsky orders each entry by time of year and season. If the reader reads the book from the beginning to end, he/she will experience a year from a child's eyes. The treasury includes poems that deal with every-day activities, such as sports, school, families and seasons. The main message of this story is that everyone should feel a little bit of wonder or creativity, even during a "routine" day. For example, the book gives a poetic spin on the sound of a woodpecker: "Woodpecker's jack hammer head starts a dreadful din."

I also enjoyed the watercolor pictures in this treasury. Having lightly colored pictures allowed the reader to better focus on the many sections show more of words on each page. (There was about five poems per page). If the illustrations had been more bold, the reader would have been over-stimulated!

Finally, this treasury included the work of about one hundred different children's poets. The constant change in voice kept the book alive and interesting. For example, in the middle of the book, a sad poem about rain is followed up by a more up-beat poem about rain and flowers! show less

This wonderful collection of poems is a book to treasure not only for the poetry but the beautiful illustrations that cover every page. I think this book classifies as an art book, too! Hi

This book was super cute and fun to read. It had several different poems about numerous subjects. It varied from seasons, day and night, animals, holidays, and etc. The book was probably for upper elementary because the words were kind of small and some poems were quite long. I would highly recommend this book to any elementary class. I truly feel like children would enjoy this book and have a fun time reading them.

These modern poems for children were not my favorites- there were good ones, to be sure, but overall I wasn't into the majority. There were few poems of interest to adults, and even fewer silly children's poems (like Shel Silversteins, my favorites), so the majority of poems were less-than-dazzling descriptive type poems. Nonetheless, if you need a poem on a topic, there's sure to be one in here.

This is a collection of poetry, full of watercolors, about a wide variety of topics such as nature, siblings, school, and everyday life.

Independent Reading Level: Grades PreK-5
Awards/Honors: BCCB Blue Ribbon Book 1997