Life in a Country Album: Poems by Nathalie Handal

Life in a Country Album: Poems by Nathalie Handal

by CarolNo Comments
I don't read much poetry. It takes a savoring, a slow reading, that I'm not good at, that I should practice more. I am glad that I picked up Life in a Country Album, the poems are beautiful and touching and challenging. I read Handal's mini-biography before I bought it, but was unprepared for how much French was in the first section. I have a little French left from my high school years, enough to get the gist of some of it, but not all. On the other hand, maybe that's not important, maybe it's the sounds and the flow and the contrast. For Handal, it seems the world is home. She's connected to places and shares those, but she's not tethered to any, and that's a piece of what she's exploring....
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Ivy in Bloom by Vanita Oelschlager, illustrated by Kristin Blackwood

by Carol2 Comments
Ah, I understand how Ivy Van Allsberg feels. Winter wears long for me, too. I look forward to spring, "when the world is mud-luscious" and "puddle-wonderful." And March, especially, with it's glimpses of better weather, followed by snow, can get long. Ivy in Bloom is really cute. The author takes excerpts of classic poetry and weaves them into Ivy's world as winter turns to Spring.  It's a short story and the illustrations fit the flow perfectly. In the winter, the colors are dark and gray, but as spring comes, out come the yellows and bright greens and purples and pinks. All the pictures are cute, but the spring ones are especially happy and bright. As the blurb states, at the end each piece of poetry is identified by author and work. This makes a good introduction to poetry for younger children and can lead older siblings or parents to read the originals. It's one I would have enjoyed reading to Amber...
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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, illustrated by Susan Jeffers

by Carol8 Comments
My mom and I were at the bookstore the other day looking for Christmas gifts and ran across this lovely little book. Happily, she bought it. I'm not sure if she's keeping it or giving it to my niece, but either is a good choice. I love introducing kids to classics before they can think they're boring. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost is perfect for the season. Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go...
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Morning the Burned House by Margaret Atwood

by CarolNo Comments
I've read several of Atwood's books over the years, but that's not why I picked this one up, even though I do enjoy the short pieces of hers I've read. When we heard Louise Penny speak, she said that several pieces of the poetry in her Gamache series come from Morning in the Burned House. The poems are lovely and dark and sad. They are full of feminine power and grief, truth and mythology, anti-war messages and pro-environment. I love how the words sounds and feel, how the phrases at times are just perfect, although not always. Not every poem struck me, but enough did to make this worth reading. I wanted to give you a few bits, but taking out a few lines from the poetry doesn't really give you the feel, takes away the meaning and most of the feel of the poems. I will give you a middle bit from "The Loneliness of the Military Historian", but you can find the whole...
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Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite Songs by Erik Didriksen

by Carol4 Comments
Pop Sonnets is a cute, quirky little book. Didriksen takes popular songs from over the years, oldies through today's hits, and Shakepereanizes them, with the appropriate vocabulary and meter. There are few books I read parts of out loud to my husband, but this was one of them. It's fun to see how he takes songs we know and transforms them. Here are the opening lines of a couple of my favorites: Guns 'n' Roses, "Sweet Child o' Mine" Her smile, it doth recall a simpler time - the bygone years when I was but a boy; each day held some discovery sublime, each exploration brought some newfound joy. Spin Doctors, "Two Princes" Two noblemen before thee genuflect, entreating thee in ernest for thy hand. The first, he garners riches and respect; the other's only flights of fancy plann'd. Hmm, showing my age there, aren't I? The Eagles' "Hotel California," is immediately recognizable. I drove my carriage o'er the darken'd road when faintly I observ'd a distant inn. When I arriv'd, their greeting did forbode the vile debauchery I...
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