- delightful collection of poems full of relatable childhood moments
- convo: witch mentioned (rhymes with ditch), fairies mentioned, a pipe mentioned, see * below
- charming illustrations
Type: anthology of juvenile poetry
Ages: 3+
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustrator: Tasha Tudor
Parents, beware! This book could inflame your children’s imagination and encourage them to be pleased and content with the ordinary aspects of their lives. 🙂 To be clear, we love this book in our family and have read through it all multiple times, though there’s one poem I should note:
*The poem entitled, “Foreign Children” is often one to spur heated debates in the literary world. It is written from the perspective of a boy who “talks down” to children in other countries/cultures; however, it seems more like he’s trying to suppress jealousy at their so-viewed adventurous lives. He’s naive, yes, yet he comes across as innocent to me. You can find the poem (and many discussions on it) around the web.
Make the enjoyment last by reading only one or two poems a day and studying their accompanying pictures (we love our copy with Tudor’s paintings, but there are many versions of Stevenson’s book–see which is your favorite). You may even find poems you’d like to memorize as a family!