04/11/2022
In an introduction, educator Yasmine Shamma details the volume’s beginnings: while inviting her son, then-four-year-old Nadim, to write a poem about coming home from school, she asked him to list the things he removes inside the front door: “You take off your brave,” he told her, in a moment of insight that “shared his experiences of the world.” These pages collect poems that Nadim dictated to his mother, poems by Nadim’s sister, and some by his preschool classmates, too, on topics conceptual, experiential, and social-emotional. All feel fresh, spontaneous, and aware of important truths: “Nothing can make love disappear/ Not spells/ Not magic/ Not mermaids/ Not anything.” With a loose line and sparky excitement, Ismail captures children of various abilities and skin tones in uninhibited play—dancing, pushing a puppy in a perambulator, presenting a huge bunch of flowers to a mother. Nadim notes, “Anyone can write a poem if they just put on a paper what they think,” and the volume invites children to write their own, as they are. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)
This charming collection of original poetry is accompanied by vibrantly joyful illustrations. . . . Everything from cadence to word choice to imagery rings true to a preschool perspective, and audiences of all ages will enjoy the imaginative descriptions of and fresh insights . . these selections beg to be read aloud and will enhance classroom lessons and story hours.
—Booklist
The clear, expressive free-form pieces examine the cornerstones of a young person’s world: home, school, family, friends, sensations, memories, and emotions. . . . This unique collection will serve as an appealing introduction to poetry for children: reflecting their daily experience to them, bolstering their appreciation of the written word, and perhaps inspiring them to construct poems of their own
—School Library Journal
Accompanied by energetic illustrations full of buoyant, frolicking children of varying races, the results of [Nadim's] first year of writing are striking: imaginative phrases, perceptive moments, and poems that feel finished in a unique way, with some bits and pieces you’d expect from a 4-year-old, not at all a bad thing. . . Teachers can use the structures of some of the lines as jumping-off points for students, and kids will be delighted to see the work of a peer in print. The poems themselves capture the newness and excitement of being a child. . . A colorful, warm collection that young readers and poets will savor.
—Kirkus Reviews
These pages collect poems that Nadim dictated to his mother, poems by Nadim’s sister, and some by his preschool classmates, too, on topics conceptual, experiential, and social-emotional. All feel fresh, spontaneous, and aware of important truths. . . With a loose line and sparky excitement, Ismail captures children of various abilities and skin tones in uninhibited play.
—Publishers Weekly
What on Earth could a preschooler have to say about the world? A tremendous amount, as it turns out — about love, school, flowers, life underground and favorite things. Some poems are profound in ways that only the very young, who wear their feelings out in the open, can be. . . . Nadim’s poems, both deep and light, are great inspiration for other young poets — and a promise of more exciting things to come from the young artist.
—The Virginian Pilot
04/01/2022
PreS-Gr 3—A series of poems dictated by a four-year-old boy to his mother, and supplemented with poems written by his younger sister and by his preschool class, provide insight into a child's budding artistic voice and elucidates broad themes of the everyday human experience. The clear, expressive free-form pieces examine the cornerstones of a young person's world: home, school, family, friends, sensations, memories, and emotions. Many of the verses reveal that certain linguistic and rhetorical devices typically viewed as intentional components of a poet's craft are, in fact, instinctive elements of human play originating in the landscape of imagination. Nadim employs onomatopoeia (a train ride "Feels like bumpity-bump/ Sounds like chuka chuka shhhh"), repetition ("It's my mom, it's my mom"), personification ("Wednesday wears a shirt with glitter on it"), and concrete symbolism (a mix of nervousness and excitement is dubbed "Scared-sugar"), all with a natural and authentic ease. In mixed-media illustrations replete with soft washes of desaturated color, Ismail locates introspective moments in the text and amplifies them, using them as jumping-off points for scenes depicting archetypal imagery of youth: exuberant dancing and pretend play, exploration in nature, a skinned knee, the peak of a jump-rope jump, hiding in a cardboard box. The treatment of these scenes—busy, but uncluttered; energetic, but never distracting—evokes both the wildness and calm of childhood. VERDICT This unique collection will serve as an appealing introduction to poetry for children: reflecting their daily experience to them, bolstering their appreciation of the written word, and perhaps inspiring them to construct poems of their own.—Jonah Dragan
2022-03-30
An imaginative young poet makes his debut.
Whether one should look at the art or the artist is an age-old question. In this case, the artist is a 4-year-old who wrote a poem in preschool, fell in love with poetry, and continued to create poems that were then recorded by his mother (and later, as he learned to write, by himself). Accompanied by energetic illustrations full of buoyant, frolicking children of varying races, the results of his first year of writing are striking: imaginative phrases, perceptive moments, and poems that feel finished in a unique way, with some bits and pieces you’d expect from a 4-year-old, not at all a bad thing. As a picture of a precocious and talented child’s perceptions and expressions, these poems are fresh and exciting, while as a collection of memorable poems, this selection presents a preschooler's world. Teachers can use the structures of some of the lines as jumping-off points for students, and kids will be delighted to see the work of a peer in print. The poems themselves capture the newness and excitement of being a child, making friends, loving your mom, hoping, wishing, and learning how to express feelings by painting a picture with words. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A colorful, warm collection that young readers and poets will savor. (Poetry. 4-8)
