The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry

by Bill Martin Jr (Editor)

Overview

The definitive anthology of children's poetry, collected by a beloved author.
Years in the making, this full-color treasury contains nearly 200 poems, all of them handpicked by Bill Martin Jr. Traditional children's poems are presented alongside contemporary pieces, and the collection is capped off with tributes by Eric Carle and Steven Kellogg, two of Bill Martin Jr's best-known collaborators. This essential compilation also features original illustrations by award-winning artists, including Ashley Bryan, Lois Ehlert, Steven Kellogg, Chris Raschka, Dan Yaccarino, Nancy Tafuri, and Derek Anderson. This beautiful anthology is sure to become a classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534473805
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/22/2020
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	669,505
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	4 - 18 Years

About the Author

A Simon & Schuster author.

A Simon & Schuster author.

Bill Martin, Jr. (1916–2004) has been called “America’s favorite children’s author.” He wrote more than 300 books for children, including the classic texts Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, illustrated by Eric Carle; and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, illustrated by Lois Ehlert.

Michael Sampson is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two books for young children, including Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 and The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry. He and Bill Martin Jr wrote many popular books together, including Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? Michael Sampson lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Eric Carle (1929–2021) was acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children, including Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me; Have You Seen My Cat?; and TheTiny Seed. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has been translated into seventy languages and sold over fifty-five million copies. Carle illustrated more than seventy books, many bestsellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 170 million copies of his books have sold around the world. In 2003, Carle received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award for lifetime achievement in children's literature. In 2002, Eric and his wife, Barbara, cofounded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (CarleMuseum.org) in Amherst, Massachusetts, a 40,000-square-foot space dedicated to the celebration of picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world, underscoring the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of picture books and their art form. Eric Carle passed away in May 2021 at the age of ninety-one. His work remains an important influence on artists and illustrators at work today. Find out more at Eric-Carle.com.

Steven Kellogg is the beloved illustrator of more than one hundred books for children including Clorinda and Clorinda Takes Flight, and he has been awarded the Regina Medal for his entire body of work. Mr. Kellogg works in an old barn overlooking Lake Champlain in Essex, New York, where he lives with his family.

Editorial Reviews

This substantial compendium has all the hallmarks of a classic: satisfyingly fat (175 pages), beautifully illustrated (by 13 different artists), thick paper, spacious lay-outs, sturdy binding, plus three separate indexes and a table of contents. All this would be for naught, however, without first-rate selections. Luckily, the late Bill Martin handpicked a bouquet of verses ranging from solemn to serious, lyrical to laughable, and classic to contemporary.
—The Washington Post

Kristi Jemtegaard

Gr 2-5

This grand and varied anthology contains an impressive number of old favorites and newer selections. Grouped by theme, such as animals, nature, feelings, school, family, and nonsense, the poems represent an appealing range of humor, pathos, and meditative wonder. Though many of the offerings have been widely anthologized, it's always nice to come across classics by Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Eleanor Farjeon, and Emily Dickinson. Their poems, along with newer works by Mary Ann Hoberman, Dennis Lee, and Aileen Fisher, among others, are paired with illustrations crafted by an eclectic range of distinguished children's picture-book artists including Ashley Bryan, Lois Ehlert, the Dillons, Chris Raschka, Steven Kellogg, and Dan Yaccarino. There is a smattering of poems by Robert Frost, and tributes to Bill Martin, Jr., from Eric Carle and Steven Kellogg. Five of Martin's poems are included as well. The nine poems in the food chapter represent a savory mix of whimsy and laugh-out-loud humor, including Louis Phillips's "On Eating Porridge Made of Peas," John Ciardi's "Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast," and Jack Prelutsky's "Herbert Glerbett." This finely crafted, accessible collection should resonate with a wide audience of readers; it deserves a place in most schools and libraries.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA

School Library Journal

A veritable pantheon of illlustrators contributes work to this delicious collection of Martin's favorite poems. The likes of Ashley Bryan, Chris Raschka, Lois Ehlert and more appear matched to such literary lions as Aileen Fisher, Margaret Wise Brown and Langston Hughes. Play is key here: Mary Ann Hoberman's "The Folk Who Live in Backward Town" is presented normally, surrounded by Stephen Kellogg's upside-down and backward illustration; the mirror image of both appears on the facing page-what a hoot! Ranging from the reflective "Hurt No Living Thing," by Christina Rossetti, with colored-pencil illustrations by Aliki, to the raucous "O Sliver of Liver," by Myra Cohn Livingston, illustrated by Henry Cole, the poems represent a variety of syles and moods. Arranged thematically, the anthology includes poems about animals, nature, seasons, people, school, feelings, family and food, as well as nonsense and Mother Goose rhymes. Despite the absence of an illustrator index, this comprehensive collection is top-notch. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Bill Martin, Jr. Library at Texas A&M. (title author, first line index) (Poetry anthology. 4-12)

Kirkus Reviews