Description: American children's poetry began with Native American cradle songs, moved on to a rhymed alphabet, blossomed in the 19th century with "A Visit from St. Nicholas, " expanded in the 20th century, and continues with vigor and inspiration into the new millennium. Some of the best of these poems, however, have been neglected, forgotten, or have simply disappeared. This book, by acclaimed children's author and poet Donald Hall, returns to us the forgotten treasures of American children's poetry. Featuring beautiful drawings from the best children's book illustrations, including archival selections from early and rare editions, Hall revives not only the classic poems but also the atmosphere of the periods in which they were written and read.

From the 1787 New England Primer -- "Alphabet" -- the book spans two centuries to the 1990s with poems by Sandra Cisneros, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Janet S. Wong. Well-known American poets -- including Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Eliot, Carl Sandburg, and Robert Frost -- are joined by lesser-known masters. Poems about holidays alternate with verses for recitation, nursery rhymes, poems for laughter, bedtime verses, scary poems, and animal poems. Multiculturalists will not be disappointed either -- from anonymous Native- and African-American poets we step forward through the ages to admire the talent of Langston Hughes, Sonja Sanchez, and Francisco X. Alarcon. Parents and teachers will delight in reading these poems aloud to their children and students.

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