Krystyna Orska

Well, I can see why this isn't more famous. ?áAnybody but me would have had the sense to not pick it up, but, no, I'll try anything....
Illustrations would appeal to grannies of infants. ?áBook itself needs a coffee-table to support it. Poems are mostly terrific, but, even when we bear in mind that we mustn't underestimate children, and that poetry is as much music as it is meaning, and that developing an appreciation for poetry is done best by starting early and hearing & reading many times, most are over the heads and/or inappropriate for children under the age of about 10, and many should be skipped altogether. ?á

Thackeray's A Tragic Tale is offensive humor about the pigtail of tradtional Chinese men. ?áByron's The Destruction of Sennacherib is, erm, of *what* value? ?áRukeyser's wonderful bit of poignancy, ?áBoy With His Hair Cut Short, is clearly about a poor white city child, but is illustrated with blacks - because Orska has trouble?áimagining, judging by this and other illustrations, blacks in the country or whites in the urban slums. ?áA?áFence by Carl Sandburg is much too heavy for little ones. ?áEtc.

There's a lot of good poets represented here. ?áStevenson, Rossetti, Wordsworth, Whitman... and Poe and Dorothy Parker! ?áBut there's no organization. ?áNot by length, theme, style, form, date, age-apt., anything. ?áThe only helpful thing is an index to Poems that are Exciting; Funny; Patriotic; Stories;" ?áToo bad. ?áI did find a few that were both new to me and worth my time - but I'm not the target audience and have no interest in the presentation of this book."… (altro)