A Child's Garden of Verses [Hardcover]

Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), Brian Wildsmith (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2008 | Age Range: 6 and up

Brian Wildsmith's stunning art is the backdrop to this newly revised selection of Robert Louis Stevenson's wonderful poetry for children. First published in 1885 and continuously in print since then, Stevenson's poetry captures the joy and whimsy of childhood and is deservedly a classic. This book is a garden of delightful, imaginative poetry, complete with fairies, animals, and plenty of fun. Make-believe that a bed is a ship and exchange pirate stories; swing from a favorite tree and feel like you can touch the highest leaves; or visit a caravan of kings. An excellent read-aloud to share with a child.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Poems Stevenson originally wrote for his children are beautifully illustrated in this appealing volume. --Yellow Brick Road

About the Author

Brian Wildsmith has deservedly won a reputation as one of the greatest living children's illustrators. In 1962 he published his first children's book, ABC, for which he was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal, Britain's equivalent to the Caldecott Medal. He was also a runner up for this medal for The Owl and the Woodpecker. He has said: "I believe that beautiful picture books are vitally important in subconsciously forming a childs' visual appreciation, which will bear fruit in later life." The Brian Wildsmith Art Museum is in Izukogen, a town south of Tokyo. Last year in Japan, almost one and a half million people visited a traveling exhibition of his work. Brian currently lives in France.

Product Details

• Age Range: 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Star Bright Books; Revised edition (March 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159572057X
• ISBN-13: 978-1595720573
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 0.6 x 11.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary Criticism & Collections

More About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a novelist, poet, short-story writer, and essayist. In 1883, while bedridden with tuberculosis, he wrote what would become one of the best known and most beloved collections of children's poetry in the English language, A Child's Garden of Verses. Block City is taken from that collection. Stevenson is also the author of such classics as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#92 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

#92 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic for any child (or child at heart) July 9, 2002

By Catherine S. Vodrey

Format:Hardcover

This classic edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" is justly famed because it so beautifully pairs Stevenson's sometimes exuberant, sometimes melancholy poems on childhood with the extraordinary illustrations of Tasha Tudor.

Tudor's delicate watercolors complement Stevenson's work almost to the point that you think the two, living in different centuries, must share some time-travel telepathy with each other. All the classic Stevenson pieces are here: "The Swing," "The Land of Counterpane," the terrific poem about a child's shadow. Tudor depicts only children and animals herein--as it should be--without the presence of shadow of adults anywhere. Both Stevenson and Tudor understand in their bones that no matter what grown-ups may think, children inhabit a world of their own. That world is mostly beautiful, but sometimes fraught with danger or questions. Those hints are present here, but the overwhelming impression any reader will have will be that of beauty--both in words and in pictures.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I read this 30 years ago May 2, 2000

By A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Thirty years ago, I was taught to read with this. Different pictures, same poems. I learned to imagine and believe in ordinary, yet beautiful things. Even today, in my own writing, I smile realizing how and when I learned a technique ... just by listening to my mother whisper these poems nightly.

Aptly named, RLS has the reader remembering the wonderful days of playing alone and with friends, of delighting in the moment.

Your child will gain an understanding of classic children's poetry, of the rhythm and rhyme. They sound eloquent aloud, and read gentle at bedtime.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful poems that will stay with you June 16, 2000

By A. Creech

Format:Hardcover

Like many others, I first read these poems as a very young child. I didn't realise until rereading them just recently how many of them had stayed with me. The poems all deal with sounds, sights and emotions that will be familiar to most young children. And as an adult, the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson brings back that sense of wonder and amazement that many of us lose as we grow older. One of the poems that I will always remember deals with how difficult it is to go to bed when you are told in the summer when the days are long and the sun is still out. who doesn't remember this?

The illustrations in this particular edition, by Tasha Tudor, capture perfectly the childhood world of the poetry--the imagination in play is wonderfully portrayed. Remember when the space under the table became a cave, or a castle, or a spaceship? These poems and the accompanying illustrations deal with these imaginary adventures that all children share in.

Purchase this book and share it with other adults and with the children in your life. If it stays with you for the rest of your life, then you have gained a treasure.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A child's Garden of Verse by Robert lewis Stevenson October 18, 2000

By Elizabeth J. Lamb

Format:Hardcover

Truly a walk down memory lane for this 3/4 of century old heart--At one time, I knew most of them by memory--the love of my life as a child and now a chance to go back to childhood- - if only in memory. Every one young or young at heart should read it just once more.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Very Best Titles in Children's Books November 27, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This was THE book of my childhood! I still own this book, and read it even today. I received it as a gift more than forty years ago, and it has lost none of it's original charm. This book introduces children to poetry with beautiful cadence, and uplifting, happy thoughts. The illsutrations of Tasha Tudor are lush and give additional imagination to the poetry. The stories in the poems are of a different time and place in history, but still evoke the innocence present in every child, even today...no matter our age!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Artist rather than writer focus. January 9, 2010

By Connelee Shaw

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was distressed with how many of the poems from the original Garden of Verses had been eliminated. I was more interested in the writing and would have prefered all of the text from the original.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars WATER THE GARDEN OF YOUR MIND! April 22, 2005

By STEPHEN T. McCARTHY

Format:Hardcover

When she was a little girl in Cincinnati, my Mother had a beloved copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's, 'A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES.' Many decades later, she shared her love of this poetry with me and my siblings by reading it to us often when we were little. The poem that I most vividly recall her reciting is 'TIME TO RISE' :

A BIRDIE WITH A YELLOW BILL

HOPPED UPON MY WINDOW-SILL,

COCKED HIS SHINING EYE AND SAID:

"AIN'T YOU 'SHAMED, YOU SLEEPY-HEAD?"

Most of 'A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES' is a delight sure to please very young children and adults who have an appreciation for wordplay and rhyme. Stevenson was a master wordsmith whose integration of imagination and verbal rhythms produced verse that sticks in the mind like styrofoam packing-peanuts stick to a wool shirt. But whereas the packing-peanuts are insanely aggravating, the verse is simply charming. Stevenson was not a Dr. Seuss, but neither was he a quack.

I have an out-of-print copy of 'A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES', illustrated with nineteenth century woodblock engravings. I have no doubt that the illustrations by Tasha Tudor in this volume are very nice, but truth be told, the illustrations in ANY volume are next to superfluous since Stevenson is so adept at painting word-pictures in the mind of the reader.

'A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES' will transport you back to a time when a bedsheet and a few dining room chairs was all the boat you needed to have rollicking adventures on the high seas! This poetry touches on all of the things so enthralling to little boys and girls.... Pirates and sailing ships, the seaside, distant stars, toy soldiers, galloping horses, howling dogs, imaginary playmates, the moon, explorers, Indians, swings, fairies and Gameboys are all childhood fascinations that find their way into Stevenson's verse. Well, OK, I lied about the "Gameboys" (just to see if you were paying attention), but that brings up another point. This poetry was composed in 1885, which means that the occasional archaic word or mossy British phrase rears its mysterious head from time to time. I like that; it adds a touch of antique elegance to the garden. But if you're going to be reading this aloud to a kiddie, be prepared to explain lamplighters, grenadiers, balusters, gabies and bogies.

Back in 2002, my Mom suffered a small stroke, and consequently it was decided that she should move into the house that my Brother and I shared. At nearly 74 years old, she tends to tire easily. Some days she remains in bed and lets a good part of the morning slip away. When that happens, I'll knock softly at her bedroom door and enquire, "AIN'T YOU 'SHAMED, YOU SLEEPY-HEAD?" That always gets her up to start the day. Aren't the Tides Of Life a wonder? Read more ›