6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things, October 11, 2004
This review is from: The Wishing Bone, and Other Poems (Hardcover)
It all depends on what kinds of poetry you enjoy. If you, say, enjoy the playful imaginings of good old Lewis Carroll (no mentions of his personal life, if you please) then you may believe, "The Wishing Bone and Other Poems" to be Caroll-redux. If, on the other hand, you enjoy straightforward somewhat dull poetry with zippo images or complex wordings, this book is not for you. If you do not enjoy poetry in the least and would much rather read something factual and non-fiction oriented (say, "The Art of War"), this book is also not for you. "The Wishing Bone" is for the child and adult that loves words. Loves the ways words can catch you unawares and make you gasp with pleasure at the perfect symmetry of a subtle verse. If you find yourself reading old children's nonsense poetry thinking, "They don't hardly make `em like that anymore", you're in for a treat. A real tangible delight.
The book contains only nine poems in total. That's a particularly small number when you compare it to the poetic offerings of the Shel Silversteins and Jack Prelutskys of the world. Yet the book doesn't feel brief or stilted. The poems vary in size and complexity. Sometimes they're just as long as a single page. Other times they're lengthy encapsulations of fantastical journeys and magical sights. Mitchell's subjects could be a girl and a white rhinoceros having tea or a talking chimp hunting an elusive purple tiger. The poems contemplate everything from the nature of growing up to questions we adults are often too stodgy to ask (like, "How long must circles spin around?"). The reader will be transported in this book from the banks of sugar-flavored sand to the courtrooms of kangaroos and pigs. With "The Wishing Bone" you finish the book and realize that somehow, without quite realizing it, you've grown a little wiser in the course of your reading.
But will kids dig it? That's the real question. Adults (I flatter myself to be included in that grouping) love to come up with books that they find "classic" or "good", paying virtually nada attention to their kiddies' opinions and oppositions. Personally, I think kids will love this book. This partly because the poems themselves are expertly written and incredibly imaginative. It's also in no small part due to the fabulous illustrations of one Mr. Tom Pohrt. Pohrt has illustrated this book with simple ink and watercolors but given them a life and verve that the author himself could never have imagined. The pictures are sometimes contemplative, sometimes exciting. They reminded me a little of Erik Blegvad's pictures in Charlotte Zolotow's, "Seasons: A Book of Poems" (which I also highly recommend). Unfortunately, there is one striking difference between Pohrt and Blegvad's books. While Blegvad was intelligent enough to include the occasional character that wasn't necessarily of white European ancestry, Pohrt seems to live in a white white world. Not a single person of color appears in this book (there are a lot of people in this book too... even in India), and that's a pity. Maybe if this book had been published in the 1950s I could've overlooked this mistake. In this day and age, it's near unforgivable (not to say, baffling).
Here's a taste of the book. As you'll see, it writes in a style indicative of old timey poetry:
"I've told this story many times -
To all the magazines,
To paupers and to presidents,
To communists and queens,
To diplomats in formal dress,
And journalists in jeans".
Obviously I like this passage because it sounds like the Walrus's speech from Carroll's, "The Walrus and the Carpenter", but I think it stands on its own without necessarily drawing any comparisons. The whole book is like this. Silly and introspective and ridiculous and intelligent. If you've a kid that's open to the joys of good poetry, or even have a child that likes a nice rhyming stanza once in a while, you could hardly do better than 2003's fabulous, "The Wishing Bone" (not to be confused with the great but very different, "The Amazing Bone"). This is a book you'll treasure for its beauty and its smarts. Pity about all the white people though.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Best Volumes of Children's Poetry in Recent Years, January 7, 2004
This review is from: The Wishing Bone, and Other Poems (Hardcover)
Stephen Mitchell is known to adults as an accomplished translator--of Rilke, the Book of Job, and more. Who would have thought that he would show himself to be an original children's poet, too? These nine poems are musical, entertaining, and often profound, emphasizing both the importance and limitations of wish-fulfillment and asking a number of metaphysical questions about faith and the afterlife without ever being preachy or didactic.
Not that these poems are dull or serious. Mitchell's poems and Pohrt's wonderful illustrations depict purple tigers, a trial with prosecuting pig that ends in a dessert orgy, a frog in a velvet chair, and a white rhinoceros. It is a shame that there is so little good poetry being published for children these days. This book is a beacon of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. Perhaps it can lead the way to a children's poetry renaissance.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Gem!, April 8, 2008
This review is from: The Wishing Bone, and Other Poems (Hardcover)
Wonderfully illustrated book with brilliant poetry that children and adults can enjoy over and over again. My 5 year old daughter has the Perpetual Number Song committed to memory and she loves the book being read to her, especially The Last of the Purple Tigers. I feel lucky to have stumbled across this book!
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