I really enjoyed the previous poetry collaborations of Janeczko and Raschka. This one is an ambitious addition. As many have noted, this collection is probably for older kids than A Kick in the Head et al.- more middle school than elementary, and probably for those who are already interested in poetry (and not just Silverstein and Prelutsky). I enjoyed the poems, although I'm not enough of a poetry reader to comment on the selection. I love the illustrations; Raschka's impressionistic and abstract watercolors are just made for poetry. I really wish that the introductory information had been incorporated into the body of the book, linking each poem together. I think many readers will skip over the four pages of small type and skip to the poems, thereby missing the point of the collection.

Poetry for children tends to be either A Child's Garden of Verses or funny rhymes. There's nothing wrong with either, but young readers who are interested in poetry often have no choice but to dive into adult collections. I think this book might provide a helpful bridge. ( )

This book was quite interesting, as you go into the book each poem is in time period order. The book starts in 400 A.D.-presesnt days. It was quite interesting as well you get to see how the language develops as time goes along. I enjoyed this book because it came with more if a historical background. ( )

I didn’t enjoy this poetry book at all. Some of the poems didn’t really make sense to me and I didn’t really understand how they fit in with the history. The thing I did like was at the beginning of the book, the author gives a small introduction of how the poems came about in that time period of history. The illustrations didn’t really catch my eye or make me want to look at them. To me they were boring and so just blah. They are different illustrations which make them kind of match the poem and make them different but to me they aren’t really interesting. I didn’t enjoy reading the poems in the book. ( )

I enjoyed the mix of poetry and history that this story brought about. It was interesting to read in simple poems about the history of the world as it sees poetry. Each poem is unique and the thoughtful and consistent illustrations made it thoroughly enjoyable. I think this would be a great set for the early reader.

In this collection of poems, it goes through the history of poetry with different examples from each time period.

I loved this book because no only was their beautiful poetry, there was also history. Children who read this will get a taste of both. It was very interesting to read and notice the changes throughout history and the different subject matter. The illustrations were very lovely as well, and helped with visualizing the poetry.