This volume combines the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Longfellow, Poe, Carl Sandberg and Walt Whitman with specially commissioned illustrations, a biography of each poet, definitions of the harder vocabulary and a literary commentary. Classic poems to introduce young readers to poetry.
Frances Schoonmaker is the award-winning author of The Last Crystal Trilogy for middle-grade and young adult readers in addition to her professional books on education.
She sees her writing for young people as an extension of a career that has served them. After teaching school for a dozen years, she became a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University where she taught in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching and was Director/Co-Director of the graduate-level teacher preparation program in childhood education.
The Last Crystal Trilogy is the recipient of multiple awards. The Black Alabaster Box won the Firebird Award for Historical Fiction. The Last Crystal has won the 2019 Agatha Award for Best Middle Grade/Young Adult Mystery, The Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal for Historical Fiction, the Outstanding Creator Award, the Midcrest Media Award and the London Book Festival Award.
We only read one poem a day, so this took us a long time to get through. My oldest is 6 and I think this collection would be better for kids a bit older. Many of the poems had images and even whole topics that went way over my kids’ heads; a few of them were really long; and we skipped the section of Poe altogether.
Our favorite sections were the poems by Frost and Longfellow.
Periodically I order a book unseen that far exceeds my expectations. This is one of them!!! I couldn't read it fast enough and enjoy the short life sketches, the poems, and the illustrations. Now I am going to go back and read it again---slowly so I can savor it all.
i spent a whole school year reading aloud to my kids from this book. many lovely poems, although i skipped the section on Poe. much of his work feels too dark and hopeless to me.
This was the best collection of American poets we've read to date. We particularly enjoyed the 5 or so page bios of the authors. Read one great poem a day, it's food for the soul!