A Pond Full of Ink

by Annie M. G. Schmidt, Sieb Posthuma (Illustrator)

Overview

This delightful collection of poems offers children and the young at heart a refreshing, inventive look at the world from the well-known Dutch author, Annie Schmidt. The rollicking poems tell the stories of such intriguing characters as three elderly otters who long to go boating but find themselves biking instead, animated furniture that comes to life when no one is home, and Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve who nest up in a tree!

The poems in A Pond Full of Ink transform ordinary events and places into extraordinary adventures full of imagination, much like the work of Shel Silverstein or Jack Prelutsky. Accompanying the poems is bold and expressive artwork that makes this book too charming to resist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802854339
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/07/2014
Pages:	34
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 18 Years

About the Author

Annie M.G. Schmidt (1911–1995) was an iconic Dutch writer of poetry, songs, books, plays, musicals, and radio and television dramas. Her poems, songs, novels, and stories are beloved in her native Holland and across the world. Often dubbed the queen of Dutch children’s books, Annie received numerous honors throughout her career, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1988.


Sieb Posthuma (1960–2014) was an award-winning Dutch illustrator, writer, and theater designer. The first English-language edition of A Pond Full of Ink was named as one of the best books of 2014 by the Globe and Mail, the Boston Globe, and by the American Booksellers Association. Sieb’s other books include What Ollie Saw (Levine Querido) and Where Is Rusty? (Gecko Press).

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/01/2014
Gr 1–4—Fans of Shel Silverstein will love this collection of light, humorous poems that is full of fantastical characters. The titular pond features in the first selection about a prolific fairy-tale writer who refills his pen at the giant inkwell. Troublemakers abound in poems like "Nice and Naughty" and "Isabella Caramella," whose crocodile eats annoying visitors, "like Mrs. Hudson-Rote, who thought that children were a pest,/and the lady with the fox-fur stole, who was awfully overdressed." Other poems introduce Mrs. Keller, who owns seven bears, to the chagrin of her neighbor, and Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve, who live and raise their family in a tree. Inanimate objects come to life in "The Singing Tea Kettle" and "The Furniture," in which a house's furnishings head out for a seaside stroll. The well-constructed rhymes are fun to read aloud. Complemented by whimsical illustrations, they offer glimpses into an unusual world that readers will want to visit again and again. The drawings and collage images are colorful and quirky, full of patterns and details that add depth. Illustrated spreads follow some of the poems, providing a closer look at the situation or characters introduced in the preceding poem. This book is a kid-pleasing must-have for any poetry collection.—Marian McLeod, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT

School Library Journal

★ 2014-01-29
A dozen poems from the inimitable Dutch writer magnificently translated and illustrated. Although she was the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Prize in 1988, Schmidt's work, while widely translated elsewhere, is largely little known to English speakers. But through the award-winning talents of Australian translator Colmer and Dutch illustrator Posthuma, this volume—first published in the Netherlands in 2011, 16 years after Schmidt's death, and for which Posthuma nabbed his second Gouden Penseel prize for best illustrated children's book—should change all that. Schmidt's zany characters burst to life in Colmer's florid translation. Between the ravishingly well-crafted verse, with its tight meter and lithe rhyme, and Posthuma's stark, richly layered mixed-media illustrations, readers can spend hours savoring each page. Schmidt's sympathies for the daring and slightly misbehaved shine through in these wry, whimsical sketches. The fairy-tale writer draws from his pond of ink; furniture with legs steps out of the house for a walk; the intolerant Isabella Caramella feeds her hungry pet crocodile, Crabbit; and so on. Seasoned bath avoiders and their kin will thrill at "Belinda Hated Getting Clean…": From her ink-splotched aura, Medusa-like hair and creepy talons to full-blown leafiness, Posthuma delectably marks Belinda's transformation from fauna to flora. Heartwarming creative genius abounds here, offering visual and aural pleasures aplenty: not to be missed. (Picture book/poetry. 6-14)

Kirkus Reviews