Skip to main content

Leave Your Sleep: A Collection of Classic Children's Poetry


Leave Your Sleep: A Collection of Classic Children's Poetry
Collected and adapted to music by Natalie Merchant
Illustrated by Barbara McClintock
Farrar Straus Giroux 2012, Poetry, 48 pages

In the introduction, Merchant explains that she started working on this creative project when her own daughter was born. She chose 19 older, classic, children's poems and then set them to music. The poems are available as a book illustrated by Barbara McClintock, and the songs based on the poems are included on a CD attached inside the cover. The poems are varied and interesting.  Some are familiar, like Robert Lewis Stevenson's Land of Nod,  but most are less known.  McClintock's watercolor and ink illustrations match the mood of each poem.  The most delightful thing about this collection is Merchant's music.  Her voice has a mellow, folk quality that is very listenable.  The songs are accompanied by various instruments and represent a variety of music styles that each match the theme of the poem on which they are based. This book and CD are a great choice for a parent and child to share together on a quiet afternoon.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...