Grade 1-3?Hopkins's fifth gathering of poetry in easy-reader format seldom lifts readers off the ground. Nine of the 20 selections are simple invitations to appreciate the sun, moon, stars, or falling stars; Jane Yolen's "Letter to the Moon" is an apology for the "mess" left behind by astronauts; and few readers will be transported by Hopkins's offering: "A rocket ship/will take you far/to see a crater,/quasar,/star/...Blast off, child/it's/time/for/flight." The poems are short, mostly rhymed, and their use of language ranges from the simple lyricism of Ashley Bryan's "Song"?"Sing to the sun/It will listen/And warm your words...Sing to the moon/It will hear/And soothe your cares"?to a semantically confusing extract from Joanne Oppenheim's Have You Seen Roads? (Addison-Wesley, 1969; o.p.): "Wheeless/Wingless/Weightless/Unknown roads in space await us." In Sweet's delicate watercolors, children play, dance, or look up contemplatively in a variety of city, country, and extraterrestrial settings. Despite plenty of humor and high spirits, as a tour of the universe this title makes more of a small step than a giant leap.?John Peters, New York Public Library
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From Booklist
Gr. 1^-3. The subject will grab kids, and the watercolor illustrations are dramatic and bright; however, most of the poems in this I Can Read anthology aren't as good as those in Hopkins' collection Weather (1994). A few pieces read as if written to order, especially those about technology. Some of the best, like Karla Kuskin's "Counting," are soft and dreamy. The title poem by Oppenheim gets both the science and the vision: "Wheelless / wingless / weightless / unknown roads in space await us." Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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