Customer Reviews

The Magic Pocket: Selected Poems

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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.

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!