William Blake, Kate Greenaway, Emily Dickinson: the writers in this charming anthology of 200 poems—first published in 1969—are among literature’s most beloved. And Gyo Fujikawa’s appealing illustrations depict children of all races sweetly interacting, as well as an engagingly rendered menagerie of animals and the natural world in all its wonderment. Among the verses that children will love are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells,” Lewis Carroll’s “The Melancholy Pig,” and Eugene Fields’ “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” along with proverbs, limericks, nursery rhymes, and folk songs.
Gyo Fujikawa (1908-1999) made a career in the advertising world and also enjoyed a lengthy stint at the Walt Disney Studios where she designed the large book version of Fantasia. In 1957, she illustrated her first picture book, A Child's Garden of Verses (9781402750625). Many others followed, some of which she also wrote. Babies (9781402756993), first published in 1963, stands as a landmark: it was the first children's book to depict infants of all races and nations sharing growing experiences. Fujikawa's books have been translated into 17 languages and are read in more than 22 countries.
