Poetry, Folktales and Picture books... Oh my! - Juvenile Corner

Hi everyone, 

This is reading log 4, which marks less than 6 weeks left of my first semester in grad school! Can you believe it? Because I know that I can't!
This reading log is going to focus on poetry.  Which is something that you probably guessed from the title of this post. 

The books will be listed below in alphabetical order, just like before.  (If you're curious about my other reading logs, you can click on the tab labeled "Juvenile Corner".  This will take you directly them)

Armadilly Chili written by Helen Ketteman and illustrated by Will Terry
Published by 
Category: Children's (illustrated) picture book, Folktale
Major Awards Won:
Age Range: 7-9
Pages and Spreads: 40 pages, 6 spreads

Armadilly Chili is a fun, refreshed take on folktale The Little Red Hen.  Miss. Billie is an armadillo who's a craving a bowl of beetle chili!  Miss. Billie goes around town and asks her friends if they are able to help her.  Much to her dismay, none of her friends are able to help her... That is until they smell the chili that Miss. Billie is making!  I found this story to have excellent illustrations.  The colors were bold and bright and they helped to tell the story.  Armadilly Chili is the a book that would be excellent one for a storytime.  I think that this book would be appropriate for children as young as 5 or 6.  I liked the story teaches the importance of friendship and sharing.  At the end of the story, Miss. Billie and her friends end up enjoying the armadilly chili!  Her friends even bring gifts as a token of their appreciation for allowing them to share her food with them.  It was a cute little story with a good moral at the end. 

A Coat for the Moon and Other Jewish Tales selected and retold by Howard Schwatrz and Barbara Rush; illustrated by Michael Iofin
Published by The Jewish Publication Society in 1999


Category: Children's (illustrated) picture book, Folktale, Anthology
Major Awards Won: 
Age Range: 9-12
Pages and Spreads: 94 pages, 0 spreads

Taking folktales from different counties within the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, A Coat for the Moon and Other Jewish Tales combines different tales with the same theme into one collection.  The stories within this book, while are from different countries, they do feature some of the same characters. King Solomon is in several stories.  Each story features one illustration which is at the beginning of that said story. The illustrations are done with ink and are in black and white.  The stories are wordier, so I feel that if a child was reading them alone, they would need to be a little older or have a more advanced reading ability if they're younger than 9.  That being said, I think that this book would an excellent read for a parent or a caregiver to read to a younger child.  



Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart; selected by Mary Anne Hoberman, illustrated by Michael Emberly
Published by Little, Brown & Co. in 2012
Category: Children's Poetry, Anthology (Thematic)
Major Awards Won: Poetry Foundation Children's Poet Laureate 2008-2010
Age Range: 5-6 years
Pages and Spreads: 144 pages, 42 spreads

Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart is an anthology comprised of poems by lesser known authors and more famous authors.  The anthology is broken down into 11 selections covering various topics and themes.  The pages do have illustrations on them, some of the pages have more than one poem on them with an illustration.  The illustrations featured in the book were done in watercolor, pencils and pastels.  I felt like the age range on this book could include those who were aged 4 as well.  I think that this book would be great at bedtime or even a storytime. 




Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou, edited by Edwin Graves Wilson, Ph.D., illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue
Published by Sterling Publishing, Co. in 2007
Category: Children's Poetry, Anthology
Age Range: 8 and up
Pages and Spreads: 48 pages, 2 spreads

Featuring only poems authored by Maya Angelou, Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou features 25 of her poems.  I really enjoyed this anthology.  The poems featured carry impact and are beautifully written and the focus on various topics.  The illustrations that are done in acrylic or in oil paint.  The illustrations help to enhance the poems.  Each poem featured in this anthology has a little expert about it and some of the poems have definitions at the bottom.  I felt like this age range on this book suits it well.  I think that it would be a good book for any independent reader.  




                                    Stone Soup: An Old Tale written and illustrated by Marcia Brown
Published by Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997 (second edition)
Category: Children's (illustrated) picture book, Folktale
Major Awards Won: 1948 Caldecott Honor Book
Age Range: 5-8
Pages and Spreads: 48 pages, 15 spreads

Stone Soup: An Old Tale was originally published in 1947, with a second publishing in 1997, is based on a folktale from France.  In Stone Soup, three soldiers find a small town where they hope that they are able to have a meal and find a place to rest their heads.  As the villagers see them coming down the road, they start to hide all of their food.  When asked by the soldiers if there was any food to spare or any beds to sleep in, they were told "no".  Using some creative thinking, the soldiers told the village that they wanted to make some stone soup.  The villagers were intrigued and willing to help with the various items and ingredients that were needed.  At the end of the story, the soldiers not only had their meal but they fed the rest of the people in the town (and they got a place to sleep!).

Happy reading!
- Jillian