All the Small Poems

by Valerie Worth

Shares poems about fireworks, garbage, mice, asparagus, brooms, zinnias, chairs, coins, crickets, and hollyhocks.

Genres: Poetry, School, Childrens

Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

(October 29, 1933 - July 31, 1994)
Acclaimed poet Valerie Worth Bahlke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby Swarthmore, where her father taught biology at Swarthmore College. The family then moved to Tampa, Florida, and Bangalore, India, where they lived for one year. Valerie returned to Swarthmore to attend college, graduating with an English degree and High Honors. Shortly thereafter she married George Bahlke, a fellow Swarthmore graduate. After settling in Clinton, NY, Valerie met Natalie Babbitt at Kirkland College, and Natalie began to illustrate Valerie's work, starting with Small Poems in 1972. Three more volumes followed: More Small Poems (1976); Still More Small Poems (1978); and Small Poems Again (1986). All four volumes were issued in a single paperback, All the Small Poems (1987), and seven years later, All the Small Poems and Fourteen More was released and was then followed by a paperback edition in 1996. In 2002, FSG posthumously published Peacock and Other Poems by Valerie Worth, with pictures by Natalie Babbitt, a collection of 27 poems which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, said "heralds the joy of words." School Library Journal, in a starred review, declared that "[Valerie Worth's] work gives children something to admire and aim for."

Valerie Worth was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in 1991 with its Poetry Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, which acknowledges a body of work.

Reviews

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent children's poetry--especially excellent free-verse children's poetry--is very difficult to come by. This volume is a gem, full of surprising little observations about ordinary things and perfect pen-and-ink illustration.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Tiffany]

All The Small Poems is a collection of short poems. Each poem focuses on an animal or inanimate object of some type. They are short, simple and descriptive.
In the many poems that I read from this collection, the majority did not rhyme. The poems don't exactly have a flow to them either. There isn't really a rhythm to the sentences and verses. Each poem is extremely descriptive. It gives a lot of imagery by using an array of adjectives. The poems do not give insight. Unless you are discovering the subject of the poem for the first time, it is fairly simple topics that do not expand awareness. I'd say these poems do, however, give a positive stretch. Each poem is extremely descriptive so it really does a great job in illuminating observations and featuring creative word play. If the lesson you were doing were to involve animals, this could be appropriate for that type of lesson. There are a lot of poems about animals and these poems could be good ways to describe the animals creatively.
I thought the book of poems was okay. I didn't really enjoy it a lot because I prefer poems to rhyme and to have a type of rhythm while reading. However, I feel this could be used in a lesson of some sort. If you were discussing using adjectives to describe an object, this collection of poems would be a great example. The poems however did not affect me in any way and I didn't really take much from reading them.

[Marissa Masterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

All The Small Poems by Valerie Worth is a book filled with short poems on all different topics. Some poems are about animals, household objects, flowers, and foods. The poems are very insightful and have pictures to go along with them. I really enjoyed reading these poems because they were short and very descriptive. Wile reading each poem, I could picture exactly what was being said through sight words and the object being described was described so well. I also liked how each poem had a picture to go along with it. This helps the reader see how differently someone can view and picture something in their mind. None of the poems rhymed but the sounds matched the words to the tone of the poem. They made me think as if I were the object. So, these poems provided me with new observations and awareness of how an animal may feel. I think that this book of poems would be great in the classroom and students could really benefit from it. Their topics are on things that children are familiar with and written in an easy understandable way. I really liked this book of poetry and would love to use it in my classroom one day.

[Kaleigh R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently started reading Small Poems By Valerie Worth I have not gotten that far but so far it's a great book. I'm not a big reader but this book is perfect and easy to read (witch I like). I can't really relate to this book because this book is a ton of short poems and so far I haven't read that I can relate to. But over all its a grate book.

[Barbara Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book of lovely poems about nature.

[Nancy Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of the book is exactly what it is, they are all small poems! However, the content of the poems vary from animals, flowers, objects and pretty much anything else that we can see with our eyes. What is really interesting about this book is that it can be used as another reference in your classroom so that students are able to see examples of poems. It can be a great book for younger grades that are learning how to read or how to get started on poems. One thing that I wished I could have seen about this book is that there should have been a theme or one common thing about it. Overall, it is a well rounded book that has a lot of content and great ideas that can be shared in a classroom. This is another book that I will have in my classroom because of the great content that the book has for poetry.