A Child's Garden of Verses (Hardcover)

by Robert Louis Stevenson (Author), Tasha Tudor (Illustrator) "In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In this well-known collection of poems, master poet Robert Louis Stevenson captures all the joy and magic of childhood. Tasha Tudor's signature watercolors pay tribute to a simpler time in the past, while celebrating both children and nature. Full-color illustrations.

About the Author
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a novelist, poet, short-story writer, and essayist. In 1883, while bedridden with tuberculosis, he wrote what would become one of the best known and most beloved collections of children's poetry in the English language, A Child's Garden of Verses. Block City is taken from that collection. Stevenson is also the author of such classics as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Tasha Tudor is a Caldecott artist with more than ninety books to her credit. She is known across the world for her glowing watercolor decpictions of the American rural scene of a century ago and for her exquisite paintings of children, flowers, and animals. Tasha Tudor is also the illustrator of A Child's Garden of Verses, The Night Before Christmas, The Springs of Joy, A Time to Keep, The Dolls' Christmas, All for Love, Pumpkin Moonshine, A Tale for Easter, A is for Annabelle, and 1 is One, a Caldecott Honor Book. She lives in Vermont.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 72 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; Revised edition (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689823827
• ISBN-13: 978-0689823824
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,141 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic for any child (or child at heart), July 9, 2002

By	Catherine S. Vodrey (East Liverpool, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This classic edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" is justly famed because it so beautifully pairs Stevenson's sometimes exuberant, sometimes melancholy poems on childhood with the extraordinary illustrations of Tasha Tudor.

Tudor's delicate watercolors complement Stevenson's work almost to the point that you think the two, living in different centuries, must share some time-travel telepathy with each other. All the classic Stevenson pieces are here: "The Swing," "The Land of Counterpane," the terrific poem about a child's shadow. Tudor depicts only children and animals herein--as it should be--without the presence of shadow of adults anywhere. Both Stevenson and Tudor understand in their bones that no matter what grown-ups may think, children inhabit a world of their own. That world is mostly beautiful, but sometimes fraught with danger or questions. Those hints are present here, but the overwhelming impression any reader will have will be that of beauty--both in words and in pictures.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful poems that will stay with you, June 16, 2000

By	Alison Creech (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like many others, I first read these poems as a very young child. I didn't realise until rereading them just recently how many of them had stayed with me. The poems all deal with sounds, sights and emotions that will be familiar to most young children. And as an adult, the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson brings back that sense of wonder and amazement that many of us lose as we grow older. One of the poems that I will always remember deals with how difficult it is to go to bed when you are told in the summer when the days are long and the sun is still out. who doesn't remember this?

The illustrations in this particular edition, by Tasha Tudor, capture perfectly the childhood world of the poetry--the imagination in play is wonderfully portrayed. Remember when the space under the table became a cave, or a castle, or a spaceship? These poems and the accompanying illustrations deal with these imaginary adventures that all children share in.

Purchase this book and share it with other adults and with the children in your life. If it stays with you for the rest of your life, then you have gained a treasure.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I read this 30 years ago, May 2, 2000

By	A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com "RIP MJ" (Glen Ellyn, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Thirty years ago, I was taught to read with this. Different pictures, same poems. I learned to imagine and believe in ordinary, yet beautiful things. Even today, in my own writing, I smile realizing how and when I learned a technique ... just by listening to my mother whisper these poems nightly.

Aptly named, RLS has the reader remembering the wonderful days of playing alone and with friends, of delighting in the moment.

Your child will gain an understanding of classic children's poetry, of the rhythm and rhyme. They sound eloquent aloud, and read gentle at bedtime.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com