Ages 4-8. This collection of 27 poems reflects the familiar Christmas preparations. Most children will readily recognize the activities of the book's extended American family--hauling decorations from the attic, selecting the tree, building a snowman, writing Santa, hanging stockings, and making Christmas cookies. With the exception of somewhat unusual "Overstocked," a poem about using panty hose for a Christmas stocking, and "Grandpa's Gift," which concerns a little girl's surprise when she receives a present from her recently deceased grandpa, the poems are pleasant, but offer few vivid images to make them memorable. This may be partly due to their structural similarity. But joyful anticipation of the season still comes through, and children will appreciate the expressive illustrations, which reflect the holiday excitement.
Shelley Townsend-HudsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Charles Ghigna (a.k.a. Father Goose) is a poet, children's author, and nationally syndicated feature writer who helps promote the love of children's literature by speaking at scchools, colleges, conferences, and libraries.
He is the author of more than thirty books for children and adults which range from the 1990 Pulitzer Prize nominee Returning to Earth (Livingston University Press, 1989) to the popular children's book Tickle Day: Poems from Father Goose (Disney-Hyperion, 1994).
His poems for adults have appeared in Harper's, McCall's, New York Quarterly , Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, and hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies in the United States and Great Britain. Translations of his poems appear in Italy, Germany, France, and Russia. His verse has been featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" and on other national television and radio programs.
His poems for children appear in hundreds of magazines including Cricket, Highlights for Children, Ranger Rick, Child Life, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Storyworks, Children's Digest, Children's Playmate, Hopscotch, Pockets, Lollipops, and other publications for young readers.
His numerous honors and awards include the Pulizter Prize nomination, invitations to perform his work at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Library of Congress, the Helen Keller Literary Award, fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. His poems have earned first place awards in the International Sakura Haiku Writing Competition and the Writer's Digest National Poetry Writing Competition. He has received the American Bookseller's Association's "Pick of the Lists" for two consecutive years.
He has served as poet-in-residence at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, poetry editor of The English Journal for the National Council of Teachers of English, and as correspondent for Writer's Digest magazine. He is a popular speaker at schools, conferences, colleges, libraries, book fairs, and festivals.
Charles Ghigna lives in Alabama with his wife, Debra, and their son Chip.
