A Child's Book of Poems

by Gyo Fujikawa (Illustrator)

Classic poems for children, beautifully illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Picture Books, Fiction, Anthologies, Classics, Juvenile

119 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Gyo Fujikawa was an American illustrator and children's book author. A prolific creator of more than 50 books for children, her work is regularly in reprint and has been translated into 17 languages and published in 22 countries. Her most popular books, Babies and Baby Animals, have sold over 1.7 million copies in the U.S. Fujikawa is recognized for being the earliest mainstream illustrator of picture books to include children of many races in her work, before it was politically correct to do so.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chosen for the illustrations by Fujikawa, but pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the verses chosen. Some are significantly longer, or more serious, than those included in other anthologies for young children.

I'm particularly impressed by "The Day is Done" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with 11 verses including:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems, rhymes, and bedtime are a delightful trio! And this title has some incredibly sweet scenes!

Ages: 4 - 9

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[Elizabethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best edition of "children's" poetry, period. Gorgeous drawings, Rich beautiful poetry wonderfully illustrated, that doesn't assume children must be pandered to. Longfellow, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Dickinson.. A introduction to whet a child's appetite for a lifetime filled with poetry, poets, beautiful language, and rich ideas.

This will now be my go-to baby shower gift.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In several years of reading poetry to my kids, this is by far my favorite collection. The selection of poems is wonderful—lots of different poets and topics and images, both sweet ones and funny ones—and I love the art by Gyo Fujikawa.

My 6yo said to give the book “sixteen stars!” My 9yo really enjoyed it too.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of children's poetry with cute illustrations

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best nursery rhymes, poems, limericks, and sayings are presented with playful illustrations that capture childhood. Lucious color plates alternate with lovely black and white drawings. This collection emphasizes the fondest memories of childhood: imagination, play, and discovery. This is the kind of book to gift to a child from age 0 to 100.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry book has been in our Morning Time basket for several months now. It was greatly enjoyed by DD. She loves poetry and was sad that we had finished it. This is one I'm sure we will reread again. The selections of poems are perfect for children and the illustrations are beautiful!

[Rimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m 30 and I still read this poetry book from time to time. The illustrations are beguiling and the poem choices are fascinating, there are some great funny ditties and macabre Dahl-esque ones.

[Leah Delcamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beautiful illustrations are what drew me in but the selection of poems are equally delightful. My son loved this as well and we will definitely revisit this gem throughout the seasons. This is heirloom quality and can be read for generations…in fact, my Grandma enjoyed this with us as well. :)

A few favorites…

~NIGHT BLESSING~
Good night,
Sleep tight,
Wake up bright
In the morning light
To do what’s right
With All Your Might
-unknown


~EVERY DAY~
Love the beautiful,
Seek out the true,
Wish for the good,
And the best do!
-Felix Mendelssohn

…and every single poem included by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow…I truly love his poetry.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful illustrations and lovely poems. Even my older boys enjoy this! I ended up purchasing this so we can take our time reading it together. There are close to 200 poems in this children's book.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this with G over several months during morning time. (Had read it before with C.) Lovely collection of poems for children.

[Michelle Elaine Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork and sweet poems my two year old and four year old both enjoyed. We will read this one again!

[Rachel Behrends · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lovely collection of poetry to be enjoyed by the entire family. It contains many poems that all children should enjoy and cherish. Fujikawa is a delightful illustrator as well. We all looked forward to reading a page every morning before starting home school.

[Meredith Nunley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never really been a big poem person but this was on our summer reading list. I have quite enjoyed getting into some other poem collections with the kiddos. Not sure I’ll dive into adult poems but the kid ones are good.

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her illustrations. They are so beautiful. I love the poetry and enjoyed reading them aloud to each other with my kids.

[Tammy U · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the poems included are clearly from another time and place...but Fujikawa's illustrations are timeless and charming, especially the full color spreads. As always she includes children of all skin colors and ethnicities. No fanfare, just a representation of all children. She quietly, but radically, normalized the mix of all races in the most innocent of settings...books for children❣️

[Rebecca Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the last part of Ambleside Online Year 1, the poetry book called for was to choose from either A Child's Book of Poems or the Oxford Book of Poetry for Children. I chose A Child's Book of Poems primarily because it was simpler to find. The book itself is a quite lovely hardcover with lovely black and white and color illustrations. Here's what the children thought:

Ellie (age 6): Five stars! I loved it!

Connor (age 7): Four stars! It was pretty good. I liked the poems. (He had me put it on the bookshelf so that he could pull it out to read some of the poems again, and I thought that was a pretty good endorsement.)

Emalee (age 11): One star. I only liked one poem, "The Fleas and the Fly." (This is the third poetry book in a row she's given one or two stars too. I'm beginning to think that she just doesn't like poetry. I think I should try a story in verse, like "Brown Girl Dreaming" to see if she would like that better.)

Bennett (age 12): Four stars! I really like some of the poems. Others are way too short.

As far as my thoughts go, this is a varied and wide ranging volume, and there are poems in here that every child and adult will like. Some of the poems are familiar, and others may be new, but they are all quality poems. They range from famous poems by authors names that I'm not as familiar with to poems by Dickinson, Tennyson, and Longfellow. The lovely illustrations make it a pleasure to read to children.

[Jennifer Olsker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of over ninety poems is a true and classic example of children's poetry. While some may think of the word classic as boring and dry poetry, this collection is just the opposite. it contains many types of poems varying in length style and the overall message. After reading a number of selections, I believe that students or young children would be able to decipher the different texts to find deeper meaning, even though they were meant for a younger age group. Some of the poems include traditional nighttime stories such as "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod", "Night Blessing" , and "Now I Lay Me Down". This also include poems with messages including themes of nature, kindness, holiday seasons/holidays, and simple childhood rhymes, such as "Eenie, meenie, minie, mo Catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers let him go, Eenie, meenie, minie, mo". As for the illustrations, i think that even though they add an extra sense to the story, they do not overwhelm the overall poem. The illustrations give the right balance of extra depth and meaning to the story, and allowing the poem to speak for itself. As a side note, the multiple illustration contribute to the "classical" feeling of the book. Many pictures are simple sketches or paintings with older color schemes and older style characters.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, the illustrations are wonderful. They are from the late 1960's and have a vintage feel--yet they are multi-cultural. They are sooooo cute. Usually one page spread will be in color, the next in black and white, and this alternates in the same pattern throughout the book.

Second, the poems are great, too. They are for children, but not the funny Shel Silverstein type. Rather, they are old-fashioned sorts of poems. Lots of Lord Alfred Tennyson, Robert Louis Stevenson, but tons of other famous names--Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and many, many others. If there is a fault in this book, it is almost that there are too many poems. It is a little overwhelming for one book. However, all the poems are of high quality.

[Gillian Barto · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. None
2. First grade
3. This is a book full of poems from well-known authors. There are 200 poems total and the poems have their own illustrations to go along with them. The poems have diverse illustrations throughout the book.
4. I enjoyed reading this book and I can definitely see why these poems are much loved. Gyo did a great job at illustrating and making sure every child that reads this has a voice. The book uses a lot of natural elements.
5. Children can make their own poems that represent diversity. They can also pick a poem and do their own illustration for it.

[Shanshan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of poems geared toward children. The illustrations were nice. It was organized by season and my child was a little disappointed when it didn't line up with the actual season (we read it straight through for school). Otherwise, it was enjoyed!

[Nate Hipple · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough review. The selection of poems is all over the place. Some are amazing reads that are great to share with your kids. Others are wonderful poems that, due to either vocabulary or language, are totally over a kiddo's head. And others still are just weak. Also, lots of religious poems made the cut. Not really a complaint, but worth pointing out. So yeah, this one's all over the place from amazing to a total dud. Just because something's old or traditional doesn't automatically convey quality.

[Madison LibraryBookFamily · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading It Began With A Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way, I knew I needed to see some of her work myself. This book of poems does something unique for it’s time. It shows children of various races playing together. The poems range from short and silly, to long and serious. The illustrations draw you in with lots of detail and cute children. While to a modern child it might feel slightly dated, this book is significant for it’s time.

[Helaena Hutchinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book deserves a 4.75-star rating because of its welcoming feeling for children to enter into poetry. This book is for children that were starting to learn about poetry and learn how to use poetry for the first time. The colors help express the different poems in their section, and art helps illustrate the different textures. Each of the poems has a different meaning of a story. I can see this book teaching kids for the first time about poetry in this book.

[Sofia Seledkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa, 2010. This book of poems is beautifully illustrated, offers all types of poems, it is very diverse, but not very easy to follow. It was organized by season and my I was a little disappointed when it didn't line up with the actual season. But the subjects chosen for the poems were very impressive!

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really excellent collection of poetry for children - I read a few from this book every day to my kids (6 & 8 at the time) while they were eating breakfast, for a couple of months. Contains some definite classic favorites, and also quite a few I had never encountered before, but quite enjoyed. Very nice!

[Morgan Stout · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful book of poems to read with my five-year-old. The illustrations made remembering where we were in the book an easy task. Our hardcover copy from the library had a nice size and high quality binding, too. Sometimes the poetry collections are odd sizes with fragile bindings. This one was so nice that I want to purchase my own copy!

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fave poetry book. Love, love her illustration!My 5 year old chose to draw her illustration inside the book on top of some of the illustrations and that made me shed some tears for Gyo's beautiful illustration but still... 😅😭

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet illustrations and dozens of wonderful poems and rhymes from well-known poets like Rosetti, Tennyson, and Frost as well as pieces of unknown origin. My children and I looked forward tto our daily poetry sessions with this volume. Includes three helpful indexes in the back.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous, gorgeous book! A collection of short poems from classic poets (Blake, Wordsworth, Dickinson, etc.), accompanied by lovely illustrations. Many of the poets I haven't had the pleasure of reading before, because poetry isn't usually my thing, but this is super accessible and pleasant. Definitely a book I'll get for my kids.