The Magic Pocket: Selected Poems [Hardcover]

Michio Mado (Author), Anno Mitsumasa (Illustrator), Empress Michiko (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998 | Age Level: 4 and up

Here is a selection of verses by Michio Mado, chosen and translated by the Empress Michiko of Japan. Winner of the 1994 Hans Christian Andersen Author Award, Mado is the much-loved author of poems and songs for children in Japan. The Empress introduced his work to the world outside of Japan in The Animals: Selected Poems, an earlier book. Her translations, like the originals, are playful and childlike in their imagery. For example:

Fingers
Fingers
Fingers
Fingers,
All in a row.
No quarrels.
Nails
Nails
Nails,
Fingers' faces.
Sweet!

The poems are given in the original Japanese, facing their translations in English. For each poem, the internationally known Japanese artist Mitsumasa Anno, winner of the 1984 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, has made enchanting pictures that catch the full flavor of the verses. A companion to their earlier collaboration, The Animals, this is a very special book for children of many cultures in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this companion volume to The Animals: Selected Poems, the Japanese and English versions of each of the 14 poems here appear on opposing pages, once again forming handsomely designed, unified spreads. However, the strengths of the earlier book?Mado's unexpected imagery, the spare restraint and elegance of the poems, the book's exquisite woodcuts?are lacking in this new volume. The subjects are playful and child-oriented, but many of the poems are written as if the poet were transcribing a toddler's conversation. In "Let's Play Together," for example, the two stanzas repeat, using first an elephant and then a bear: "Wouldn't it be nice/ If a baby elephant/ Came to my house,/ Saying, 'Let's play together.'/ Wouldn't it be nice,/ Mommy?" Another poem introduces day and night by saying "Good morning, good morning!/ The day breaks./ Daddy's up,/ Mommy's up,/ Brother's up,/ Sister's up,/ Baby's up./ Everyone's up./ Good morning, Sun!" then greets the night in reverse order, ending with "Good night, Moon!" A few poems deliver surprises by way of fresh metaphors or perspectives: a child is urged to climb to the top of the jungle gym and "Touch with your cheeks/ The chilly sky above"; an umbrella is "the world's/ Most chattering flower,/ Chattering now with hail,/ Chattering now with rain," accompanied by whimsical paper-collage images of inverted tulip parasols alongside the upright flowers. But despite Anno's softly transparent artwork and some perceptive moments in the poetry, this collection doesn't match the ingenuity of its predecessor. All ages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-A companion volume to The Animals (McElderry, 1992), also by the beloved Japanese children's poet Mado, with the same "production crew" as before and equally excellent results. The poems-"Chicks Climbing Up a Hill," "Song of an Umbrella," "Fingers," "Rabbit," and others-are about childlike things and will appeal even to the very young. Fanciful and delicate, they evoke simple images, images that Anno has realized with playful hand-painted paper collages in shades of soft mauve and gray. The beautiful layout matches the simplicity of the poetry; mauve borders frame the Japanese text on the left and the English translation on the right. All in all, a highly artistic effort.
Judith Constantinides, East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry; 1ST edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689821379
• ISBN-13: 978-0689821370
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #681,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cute poetry for a young child, January 31, 2001

By 

innominate - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magic Pocket: Selected Poems (Hardcover)

I work in a library, and I came across this book reshelving children's books. As I am fascinated with anything and everything Japanese, the instant I noticed the kanji symbols on the page I simply had to check it out. Bring poetry into the picture and I was absolutely captured.

With its side-by-side translations of the poems, this is a clever introduction to Japanese culture, though the only purpose the kanji serve is for show-there's not a lot a four-year-old can do with a poem written entirely in Japanese, much less fourteen. I'd place the listening level for this book at around ages 2 - 6, and the reading level a couple years higher. The poems are simple and relate well to a child's imagination. A stanza from "Let's Play Together" illustrates this: "Wouldn't it be nice\If a baby elephant\Came to my house,\Saying, 'Let's play together.'\Wouldn't it be nice,\ Mommy?"

The illustrations were best described by Publisher's Weekly: "The milk-white paper cuts on beige pages sustain a tone of classic simplicity which is echoed in the poems." While the translations are best described by the School Library Journal: "The translations...refreshingly retain Japanese onomatopoeia instead of substituting more familiar English equivalents."

This is a good example of children's poetry-real poetry, not just a book written in rhyme simply because the author thinks of him or herself as a poet. But then again, a parent might consider the book's best asset to be its brevity, as a couple of poems might be good substitute for a bedtime story. Seeing as the last poem in the book is called "Good morning and good night," this may have been the author's intent all along.

4.0 out of 5 stars Pocket Haiku, November 23, 2011

By 

Debnance at Readerbuzz (Alvin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magic Pocket: Selected Poems (Hardcover)

The Magic Pocket is a book of little poems for children, but I loved them, too. The illustrations are by the great Anno and the poems are just right for kids. I found it fascinating to see that in Japan even young children can read and contemplate haiku-like poems.

Inside the pocket
There's one cookie.
Hit the pocket,
There are two!

Hit it again,
There are three.
The more I hit it,
The more there are!

I wish I had
A pocket like that!
I wish I had
A pocket like that!