Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Sharing the Seasons: A Book of Poems
Illustrator: David Diaz
Poetry
6 and up
Simon and Schuster, 2010 ISBN: 978-1416902102
All too often those of us who live in cities do not have a close connection with the rhythms of the seasons. Cocooned in our homes, schools, and offices, we don’t experience the rain, the sunshine, the snow, the falling leaves, the prickling heat, and the biting cold that much. For this book, poet Lee Bennet Hopkins has brought together a memorable collection of poems that will remind readers that all kinds of wondrous things are happening outside their doors and windows.
With his own poems and those of Carl Sandburg, Marilyn Singer, J. Patrick Lewis, and many others, Lee Bennet Hopkins gives his readers a picture of each of the four seasons.
In the section about spring we hear a poem about a polliwog, who doesn’t “look/much like a frog,” but who will one day in the not too distant future “take your place/on the bank/fully frog.”
In the summer, a group of children build a sandcastle that has a moat with a “seashell boat” in it. Then in the fall, there are “many marvels to share.” Finally, in the section of the book dedicated to the winter, we read about icicles and how pleasant it is to sit in front of a fire warmed by the coziness of a warm cat in a lap.
In rhyme, blank verse, and many other poetic forms these splendid poems (twenty-nine of which were specially commissioned for this volume) give readers of all ages a meaningful and rich glimpse of the gifts (and nuisances) that each seasons brings.
