Synopses & Reviews
"They stepped into the poem and disappeared forever."--George Barker
The NEW Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems is a perfect introduction to the magic world of poetry. There is something here to please everyone. Familiar, well-loved poems, and many new surprises, are brought together in a beautiful illustrated collection that is full of Jumblies and dragons; wise old women and baby brothers; dogs, horses, and cats that howl at the moon. There are trains and talking tables; schools and scary houses; moms, dads, bears, and crocodiles. The choice of poets is wide-ranging, from Robert Louis Stevenson on dreams and Rudyard Kipling's "The Way through the Woods," to June Crebbin's ode to a dad whose "face looks sort of lonely/Without its fuzzy beard." There is a poem from Frank Asch about sunflakes--"We could go sleighing/in the middle of July"--and one from Lewis Carroll about a cheerful crocodile who "welcomes little fishes in,/With gently smiling jaws." Poems by W. B. Yeats; Edward Lear; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; A. E. Housman; and W. H. Auden fill out this delightful collection that is a companion to The Oxford Treasury of Children's Poems, one of OUP's most successful poetry books for children. Throughout the book, charming color illustrations complement the liveliness and atmosphere of the poems.
Review
"Excellent poems illustrated in full color. Pieces by well-known poets of the past (Auden, Belloc, Blake, Farjeon, Lear, Tennyson, Yeats) appear alongside works of contemporary poets, contributing to the freewheeling style of the collection.... Eleven artists contributed illustrations that interpret the poetry with wit, verve, and delicacy, according to the tone of the writing.... A dependable treasury for locating old favorites or finding new ones."--Booklist
"In a superbly edited anthology, more than 130 spirited, mostly British poems, classics as well as those less familiar, pair off with color and black and white art."--Publishers Weekly
"This wide-ranging collection includes Lear's 'The Jumblies,' a Barundi lullaby, John Masefield's 'Sea Fever,' a poem from the Navajo, 'The Echoing Green' by William Blake, and numerous humorous, anonymous ditties."--The Horn Book Guide
"The anthology format raised to new heights: this collection of verse, by bards as various as Yeats and Nikki Giovanni, should hold pride of place on any youngster's bookshelf."--Smithsonian
"A lively and varied selection which offers plenty of poems to disappear into."--Carousel
About the Author
Michael Harrison and
Christopher Stuart-Clark have compiled many successful anthologies of poetry, including
The Oxford Treasury of Classic Poems (1996).