Poetry for Kids

October 16, 2017
This lushly illustrated addition to the Poetry for Kids series highlights Robert Frost, beginning with a thoughtful introduction to his life and work. The 35 poems include “The Road Not Taken,” “Mending Wall,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” among other sharply observant, often lonely works. Paraskevas’s atmospheric paintings evoke themes of seasons, nature, selfhood, and change. With deceptively simple imagery, Frost’s work is accessible to younger readers, and potentially unfamiliar words are concisely defined throughout. A closing guide briefly explores the question of “What Robert Was Thinking” in each poem, inviting readers to explore their complexity: of “After Apple-Picking,” Parini writes, “This is a poem about the end of a day, weariness itself, and even the end of a life.” Ages 8–13.

November 1, 2017
A movingly illustrated selection of Frost's verse.In this newest in the Poetry for Kids series, illustrator Paraskevas and novelist, poet, and biographer Parini (Robert Frost: A Life, 2000, etc.) serve up the work of Robert Frost. All of the poems selected highlight Frost's thematic use of weather and nature, the transition of the seasons to, as Parini says in his introduction, "deliver a nugget of truth that stays with you long after you put the poem down." "Earth's the right place for love: / I don't know where it's likely to go better," writes Frost in "Birches," with his characteristic clear declamation that also carries several layers of meaning beneath. What emerges from this careful selection of largely pastoral poems is the rapt intimacy of Frost's work, his rare ability to collapse the distance between speaker and readers through a metaphor plain as a "tree at my window" or a "hushed October morning mild." Paraskevas' paintings, brimming with texture and so vividly rendered, occasionally overwhelm the typeface yet deftly harness not only the poetic setting, but movement Frost describes, as in "To the Thawing Wind," in which the speaker's incantation to the "loud Southwester!" is indicated with billowing curtains as it wreaks chaos on the writer's desk.Children will devour these suggestive illustrations as instructors help them unpack the many lessons to be gleaned from Frost's conversational yet complex verse. (glossed terms in margins, notes, index) (Picture book/poetry. 10-14)

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Starred review from March 1, 1999
March 26 marks the 125th anniversary of Frost's birth, and there could be no better tribute for a poet so often underrated, maligned and misunderstood than this sympathetic and balanced portrayal. Frost has been depicted as selfish and vindictive in biographies by Lawrance Thompson and Jeffrey Meyers, but Parini, himself a poet and novelist, sees Frost as a man who "struggled throughout his long life with depression, anxiety, self-doubt, and confusion." Rarely has Frost's story been told this dexterously, or with a better understanding of the relation of Frost's personal crises to his accomplishment as a poet. The Yankee farmer-poet actually lived his first 11 years in San Francisco, was thoroughly schooled in Latin (was, in fact, "more of a classicist by training than either Eliot or Pound"), and nursed an early ambition to pitch in the major leagues. He was competitive, funny, smart about his own career and reputation, and throughout the height of his fame was plagued by horrible family tragedies. His father, sister and several of his children suffered from deep depression, suicide and early death, and Frost was often blamed for tragedies he was helpless to prevent. Frost fought his own bouts with what he called "the grippe" with hard work, and thrived on outdoor labor. Parini makes generous use of Frost's verse, often quoting entire poems, but avoids treating the poems as if they were mere transcriptions of the poet's experience. Instead, he achieves the more difficult task of clarifying Frost's process of composition, as he shaped his material from everyday sources and shaped his lines against the strict pattern of a metric line to achieve the natural stresses of the spoken voice. The result is a book revelatory of both the poetry and the poet. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Elaine Markson. Author tour. (Apr.) FYI: All of Frost's backlist poetry and prose is in print with Owl; last year, Holt also released the CD-ROM Robert Frost: Poems, Life, Legacy.

January 1, 2018
These handsomely designed and illustrated books introduce the work and lives of these masterful poets; each book's editor explains the poet's intentions and much of the difficult vocabulary and ideas found in the verses. Frost's poetry is probably most accessible, though none of them were writing for youngsters, and many of the poems and excerpts may remain challenging. No harm in trying, though! Ind.

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