Figgie hobbin

(Note: this review was based on a different edition of the book, with a different illustrator)


I'm not sure whether children in America these days read any poetry other than collections of funny poems like Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. If there are children's poetry readers out there yet, I give a hearty “Yes!” to this little poetry collection, Figgie Hobbin.

Some of the poems are quite funny, too, like “ I Saw a Jolly Hunter” and but with a sly, intelligent humor that we don't often find in children's poetry. And not all the poems are humorous. Some are dark and bleak, like “Logs of Wood”, and bittersweet like “My Mother Saw a Dancing Bear”, poems that speak more to the grownup reading the poem aloud to the child than to the child. Causley uses words like firecrackers and sparklers. Happily, no clichés and gooey-sweet rhymes in this collection of children's poetry.

If for nothing else, this book is worth reading for the beautiful pictures by one of my favorite picture book illustrators, Trina Schart Hyman. (Is that considered when the 1001 books were chosen?)
A 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.