Customer Reviews

Silver Pennies (Cdl5 1495)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This book was given to me over 30 years ago by a dear friend of my parents and has been lost to me for sometime. I remembered it so well because when you removed the book cover it showed (I think!) a girl and tree (on a hill?) embossed in silver, with silver pennies falling from the sky. The goblins, and those green glass beads, "Give them me" "No." What a wonderful introduction to the gifts of poetry and imagination. I look forward to my new copy.

My mother, who is now 82, read poems from this book to her three children in the 1950s - I still remember sitting on her lap listening to "Animal Crackers" by Christopher Morley and my all-time favorite, "The House with Nobody In It" by Joyce Kilmer. I am delighted that it has been reprinted for me to read to my grandchildren.

A dear old friend gave this book (1952 ed) to me ten years ago. I was only 22 years old then and much to busy for poetry. She died a few years later. For ten years, I didn't pay it much mind. Then I had my first child and began to search among my books for poems that would be good to read at bedtime. To my delight, I rediscovered Silver Pennies. What a find! My husband and I read from it every night and our little 2 year old loves it. It's become almost a ritual at our house. I know my son doesn't understand all words, but the poems have a beauty all their own and he must appreciate it. I've read my favorites such as The Faithless Flowers, Rain in the Night, and Water Noises so many times that they're now committed to memory. I probably know at least a dozen of the poems by heart, which has been a real delight to my son when we are traveling or camping out and don't have books to read or light to read by. I just recite them to him in the dark -- he loves it and drifts off to sleep every time. My husband and I will always treasure this little book.

Although the new cover looks more like a Book Of Shadows than a book of children's poems, the actual writing still has the charm of the original. Beautiful, optimistic, sentimental...a lovely trip back to what was good in my childhood.

I received my copy of this book 45 years ago, at less than a year old. Throughout my childhood, I was drawn back to it again and again, finding first one poem then another to connect with. The variety and difficulty levels of the poems are such that there are new poems to discover at each learning level. Now, as an adult, I go back regularly to revisit poems that I consider old friends. Many of the poems in this collection are so descriptive that the magic and wonder of their images is just as strong now as when I first read them. Special favorites: The Faithless Flowers, A Song of Sherwood, The Spirit of the Birch, Who Loves the Rain, Souls.

This book of children's poems has been enjoyed by three generations in our family. It captures the imagination of young children and makes a wonderful bedtime reading. I credit this book for giving me an early and continuing love of poetry.

I was introduced to this marvelous collection in an old copy held by a dear friend, who grew up with it. I received my own, reprinted copy last year, and it is one of the treasures of my book collection. Ms. Thompson has selected what were modern poems for her from the under-appreciated trove of early 20th Century American literature. Her eye for poetic gems is startling, and the book holds up to dozens of readings.

Silver Pennies has made terrific bedtime and quiet-time reading for our 3yo. The poems are short enough and entertaining enough to keep a little person's attention, and ours has already found some favorites.

After all the cutesy-wootsy, sanitized, dumbed-down kids' books I've read through, this is a delight.

This, my favorite book, has been in "most treasured" status in my library for years. My mother found it for me years ago. It made me the fan of the little people and the mystical realm that I am. Recently misplaced, I was relieved to find that the book had been reprinted -- I assumed it was no longer available, as often the most treasured of volumes are impossible to replace. Now expecting my third child, I am planning to order not only another volume of Silver Pennies, but a copy of the out of print second volume, that I never knew existed

This book was given to me when I was three years old - sixty years ago. It has been part of my life, and continues to be, as my first and last prayer each day: "God and the fairies, be true, be true, for I am the child who waits for you."
Please share it with everyone you know so that its magic will continue.