100 Great Poems for Girls

Edited by Celia Johnson
Grand Central Publishing (2011)
ISBN 9780446563840
Reviewed by Joseph Yurt for Reader Views (5/11)

 

Poetry has never been as widely read in America by adults or children as other written art forms. For the  greater part of the 20th Century it was regarded as being in decline, first, among younger adult and teen readers, followed more recently by tween readers and younger. Yet, a great number of poetry books, particularly, anthologies, continue to be published. Now comes “100 Great Poems for Girls,” edited by Celia Johnson, who previously edited “100 Great Poems to Lift Your Spirits.”

Ms. Johnson’s love of poetry is evident from the outset of her enthusiastic text. “The poems I remember most vividly as a little girl were ones that we would chant as we sat in a circle and clapped our hands. But as I grew older, I discovered that…poetry transports you to magical places, whether it’s the mythical Camelot in ‘The Lady of Shalott’ or the edge of a bubbling cauldron in ‘Song of the Witches.’ The world around you transforms beneath the lens of poetry…”

Johnson, seemingly based upon her recollections of her initial encounters with the poems she selected, along with subsequent re-readings, creates the impression of an intimate relationship with each work. Her choices are offered in groupings that include Nature, Imagination, Inspiration, Animals, Nursery Rhymes, Limericks and Tongue Twisters, and Fun and Nonsense. In her Introduction she writes, “These poems were surprising discoveries for me when I first encountered them, and they are even more special every time I read them again.”

The selections in “100 Great Poems for Girls” will almost certainly be new poetry to most of the current generation of girls and their parents. The books pages are populated by universally acclaimed classics and lesser, but beloved poems, from writers ranging from Shakespeare to Shel Silverstein, and numerous poetic luminaries in between. But what will the children think?  Will these poems possess the same magic that inspired previous generations? Will these classics become their classics too? Preservationists of classic poetry like Celia Johnson hope so.

One thing for certain is that poetry is still a tough literary sell, to both adults and kids. Yet, a market for great poetry continues to sustain itself with great work. In “100 Great Poems for Girls,” Editor Celia Johnson has created a delightful sampler of such poetry. It should not be overlooked by the current generation of parents and their children.

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