NPM #15

Some books of poetry are geared to the very young, as today’s selection is (aimed at Preschool), but they don’t need to “talk down” to their reader at all.

IMG_4978This wonderful collection by Lin Oliver and Tomie de Paola even calls itself jaunty (not a word most preschoolers would know).

And the book itself does some incredibly intelligent things I marveled at seeing in a book aimed at young readers.  (Okay, I admit I might’ve squeed when I realized what had been done on the first page here.)

The book opens with a simple image.

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It could’ve just ended there.  BUT IT DOESN’T.  You guys!  It actually took me a beat to realize that the door actually opens up!!

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What an incredibly fantastic way to start the book!  It is SO powerful on SO many levels!  It’s a door that invites you into the book to explore.  It’s a door that opens the collection of poems with a sense of play.  It’s a door for a child to step through so we the reader can experience the world through his eyes.  WOW!!!!!  That concept BLEW my mind (and I admit that I haven’t seen anything else like it yet in my study of poetry picture books).

What’s even better is how the book ends, to complete the intelligence of this artistic choice.  BUT I won’t spoil that.  You have to read the book yourself to find out.  😉

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