All the World a Poem

K-Gr 2—Abstract thoughts pair with abstract collage illustrations to celebrate poetry. The first-person narrator tries to convey a love for verse and calls out everything that inspires writing and reading it: "I love poems sweet and silly/I love poems long and frilly—/All the poems dreaming on the shelf." Rhythm and rhyme vary frequently throughout the narration, from very tight to free form. Some lines and imagery are more successful than others: "I am a poet/in December,/November,/October,/September—/but never August./In August I rest,/always dressed/in white, and caressed/by a wind from the west,/with the one I love best/held close to my chest." The unusual illustrations, which are collages from childlike cut-out drawings, help bring some meaning to the words, but a lack of flow or transition sabotages the book's attempt to introduce young readers to the many forms of poetry.