Black Stars in a White Night Sky, Lawson’s second book of poetry for children, includes fractonyms, concretes, as well as short lyrics and poems that don’t rhyme. Lawson stretches the boundaries of what is normally thought of as children’s poetry, but not at the expense of the books entertainment value or clarity. The poems are written within hearing of both children and adults; philosophy and tomfoolery are equally at home in this exemplary new tome.
Poetry
Poetry genre
The Absentminded Fellow
Leaping into a shirt and thrusting his arms into his pant legs, the Absentminded Fellow dashes out into the London streets, frantically hails a cab, rushes through the train station and right into an abandoned car. Three days later, to his surprise, he’s still in London…This droll character portrait will quickly have listeners chiming in on the chorus.
A Caribbean Dozen: Poems from Caribbean Poets
Thirteen Caribbean poets recount childhood experiences in poetry and prose.
Flamboyan
One sunny afternoon while everyone is resting, Flamboyan, a young girl named after the tree whose red blossoms are the same color as her hair, dreamily flies over her Caribbean island home.
By The River
A fourteen-year-old describes, through prose poems, his life in a small Australian town in 1962, where, since their mother’s death, he and his brother have been mainly on their own to learn about life, death, and love.
Today and Today
Collection of small poems-haiku-by the haiku master, Issa. These Haiku bring to light the preciousness of this moment, and the wonder of today. Poem by poem, the cycle of this family’s life together unfolds with moments of simple joy and difficult loss-moments.
Julia
A story of a girl, Julia Burgos, born into a humble Puerto Rican family in 1914. With beautiful illustrations, it re-creates the time in which she grew up, and narrates how Julia Burgos became one of Puerto Rico’s and Latin America’s most beloved poets.
Let’s Play In The Forest
In this adaptation of the traditional French and Latin American song, animals play in the forest while a scary wolf slowly dresses and becomes hungrier and hungrier.
Drumbeat In Our Feet
The beauty of African dances is explained by introducing the history and the energy of African dances. The poetic rhythms of African dance are the instrument of the poem flow.
Illustrative medium; watercolor and colored pencil.
Mixed Beasts, Or, A Miscellany Of Rare And Fantastic Creatures
These original nonsense poems about a miscellany of odd beasts comprised of a mixture of two species, such as a Rhinocerostrich, a Bumblebeaver, a Kangarooster, and a Camelelephant, are clever and funny.