I stumbled across today’s poetry picture book because of the love of a favorite illustrator.

When I went to England a couple of years ago, I found a card in a small stationery shop illustrated by Anita Jeram. She was (and still is!) one of my favorite illustrators when GUESS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU first came out. I kinda lost track of her work back then, but last summer I was looking at that card propped up on the back of my painting table and thought to myself, “I wonder what other books she’s done since then.” That was how I discovered this anthology that originally came out in 2000 (possibly only in the UK) with Candlewick. I was fascinated by the description and had to track down a copy to read. I was blown away by the concept.

IN EVERY GRAIN OF SAND is a collection of prayers and poems from many religions all over the world. That in and of itself fascinated me, but then the editor (or publisher) decided to break the content into four categories and have a different illustrator for each section. Anita Jeram illustrated the last section, For the Night, and the poem I selected (though it was a struggle to only pick one!) didn’t come from that section. Instead, it came from the first section, For the Day, illustrated by Bob Graham.

I share a closeup of the poem so you can read it (I hope–the photos are a bit fuzzy) as well as a photo of the spread in the book. It should come as no surprise if you know me well that the one of the poems that I loved best was a beach poem (which was probably why I was drawn to the book by the title alone).

And if you’re looking for more poetry fun this month, be sure to check out the Kidlitosphere Event Roundup!  Thank you for stopping by!