Pocket Poems - Softcover

Bobbi Katz’s first collection of poems was titles Upside Down and Inside Out: Poem for All Your Pockets. Now, forty years and many books later, she is still connecting poems and pockets. She says a pocket is “a safe place to store a small treasure or a key.”
            A highly respected and anthologized poet, Bobbi Katz has worked as a writer and editor and published many books. She lives in New York City and upstate New York. Visit her website at www.bobbikatz.com.
 
Marilyn Hafner was the well-known and versatile author and illustrator of many books for children, including the Molly and Emmett books, based on the characters she developed for Ladybug magazine. She also illustrated the Bunnies books by Kathryn Lasky and the M & M books by Pat Ross, as well as many others throughout her illustrious career. Ms. Hafner died on October 31, 2008.

Kindergarten-Grade 3--In this child-friendly collection of short, bouncy poems, Katz pulls together more than 50 previously published selections by a broad spectrum of authors. She sets the tone with one of her own: "With a poem in your pocket/and/a pocket in your pants/you can rock with new rhythms./You can skip./You can dance./And wherever you go,/and whatever you do,/that poem in your pocket is going there, too." Familiar Mother Goose rhymes and anonymous tidbits such as "The Burp" ("Pardon me for being rude./It was not me, it was my food") are included, along with traditional entries, such as Emily Dickinson's "Autumn," Lewis Carroll's "Twinkle, Twinkle," and an excerpt from William Blake's "Night." However, the greatest representation comes from contemporary, well-loved children's wordsmiths, including Eve Merriam, Jack Prelutsky, Carol Diggory Shields, Aileen Fisher, and Lucille Clifton. The verses range from humorous (William Cole's "Banananananananana") to introspective (Gwendolyn Brooks's "A Stranger to Himself"). Hafner's whimsical watercolor-and-pen illustrations skillfully decorate the pages, visually enhancing the experience of each composition. In a closing note, Katz expresses her hope that these poems "...will find short-term homes in the pockets of many children and long-term homes in their memories." This superbly designed volume should find a home on most library shelves.--Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
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