First Morning: Poems About Time - Hardcover

Nikki Siegen-Smith studied English Literature and Linguistics at East Anglia University and has built an impressive career in primary education. She now works as a literacy consultant in the South-West of England. Nikki has compiled four other anthologies for Barefoot Books, including Sea Dream - Poems from under the Waves (2002). Giovanni Manna's distinctive illustrative style has been exhibited worldwide and, in 1996, he won first prize at Italy's Chioggia International Exhibition. This is Giovanni's fourth title for Barefoot Books, joining The Barefoot Book of Giants, Ghosts and Goblins (1999), Someone I like (2000), You and Me (2000) and The Barefoot Book of Knights (2002). He currently lives in Bologna with his wife and daughter.

Gr 2-6-Children's writers like Jack Prelutsky, Eleanor Farjeon, and Myra Cohn Livingston, as well as adult writers such as Derek Walcott and Philip Larkin, are gathered here. Many of the 24 poems delightfully inspire readers to consider the passage of time across days, months, or millennia, although some selections are pitched to either very young or very sophisticated readers. Some poems seem misplaced, such as the single stanza excerpted from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells," which means little out of context. The china-ink and watercolor illustrations are fanciful, multicultural, and evocative of their subjects, although the images tend to dominate the page. Nevertheless, this collection offers something for larger collections with teacher requests for this subject/format match, or with sophisticated readers willing to cull a few gems. Libraries that own Ruth Gordon's Time Is the Longest Distance (HarperCollins, 1991) or Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart-Clark's The Oxford Treasury of Time Poems (2001) might consider whether they need the additional selections this slim volume offers.

Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.