Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Winter Song: A Poem by William Shakespeare
Illustrator: Melanie Hall
Picture Book
For ages 6 to 9
Boyds Mill Press, 2006 ISBN: 978-1590782750
Though hundreds of years have passed since William Shakespeare wrote this poem in his play “Loves Labor’s Lost,” many of the images that come to mind as we read the poem are familiar ones. Many of us have experienced days when “icicles hang by the wall,” when we blow on our fingers to warm them, and when our noses become “red and raw” as we play in the outdoors. We have been to public places and had heard people coughing with a winter cold. We have helped carry wood in to feed the fire which is roaring in the fireplace.
Wonderful mixed media artwork and Shakespeare’s timeless words take us back to a different world, and at the same time the words and the images help us see that we are connected to the past through our own experiences. We may not wear stiff ruffles at our necks, and we may not cook over open fires any more, but we still fell the cold, love the snow, and if we are lucky we can hear the owl call on a winter’s night.
