And the Green Grass Grew All Around by Alvin Schwartz

Schwartz, Alvin. 1992. And the Green Grass Grew All Around: Folk Poetry from Everyone. Ill. by Susan G. Truesdell. USA: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN o60227575

This collection of folk poetry (mostly playground poetry and folk poetry for children) is fun and whimsy. For grown-ups, it is also nostalgic--a great collection of poems that perhaps have been long forgotten. Children will enjoy the silly illustrations (which reminded me of Quentin Blake's illustrations in Roald Dahl's books) and reading familiar (often funny) rhymes that they have heard from friends or on the playground. However, many of these poems will be unfamiliar and new to most children, and this book may actually help preserve some of the older playground poems and sayings.

The book is divided into categories of poems--there are poems about people, poems about school and teachers (often hilarious), poems about animals, and so on. I often found myself laughing out loud at the audaciousness of the poems because they so clearly reflect the culture of children. For me it was a nice trip down memory lane, for children it will be a nice celebration of their own kinds of poetry and oral tradition.

AWARDS & REVIEWS:

Notable Children's Books of 1993 (ALA)
1993 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)
1992 Books for Youth Editors' Choices (BL)
Children's Choices for 1993 (IRA/CBC)
Children's Books of 1992 (Library of Congress)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1992 (NY Public Library)
Bulletin Blue Ribbons 1992 (BCCB)
1993 Notable Trade Books in the Language Arts (NCTE)
1993-4 Alabama Emphasis on Reading Award

"Perhaps the best feature of the book, however, comes at the end where sources are provided for the rhymes. It is in this section that readers can see just how long some of these rhymes have been with us and where they came from." --Children's Literature

CONNECTIONS:

Many of these poems follow patterns or forms. ("Roses are red . . .") Students could be invited to write their own poems based on the forms of the poems in this collection.

Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein are two other well-known writers of poetry for children. Many of their poems deal with the same kind of issues and themes as the poems collected in this book and could be used to compare/contrast or simply enrich a discussion about some of these poems.