Touch The Poem

From the joy of stomping through thick mud to the luxury of soaking in a bathtub full of bubbles, vivid poems and delicious paintings capture the wonders that children experience every day through their five senses.

Arnold Adoff manages to climb inside a child's mind, body, and soul to write these poems of seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing, smelling... being. He loosely follows the seasons of the year with verses about the hottest day of the month so far, raking and rolling in fall leaves, the itchiness of a wet wool hat in winter, and a "Spring Saturday Morning":

Legs Into Over Alls,
Feet Into Socks,
Toes Finding
Their Places:
I Pull My Boots On
And Buckle My Rain
Slicker All The Way.
I Am Ready With My
Black Rubber Hat.

I Do A Monster Walk
Outside
Into The Mud.

Lisa Desimini's mixed-media collages use photographs, paintings, paper, and computer graphics to create exquisitely original artwork that perfectly engages with Adoff's verses. These two collaborated on another wonderful poetry collection called Love Letters. No need to be a poetry buff to enjoy either one of these special books. Go ahead--touch the poems! (Ages 4 and older) --Emilie Coulter