Canadian Poems for Canadian Kids

Sylvia Pantaleo is an associate professor of education, specializing in
children’s literature, at the University of Victoria. She is the
co-author of Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary
Classroom.

Twenty-five Canadian writers have each written a poem for this
anthology. Biographical information on the writers is included at the
end of the book. In her foreword, P.K. Page, one of Canada’s senior
writers, explicates the advantages, including aesthetic appreciation and
cognitive and emotional development, associated with reading and
listening to poetry.

Most of the poems use a rhyming structure but some are written in free
verse. Beetles, ice-cream cones, a backpack, Grandpa fiddling, winter
weather, hiccups, and a trapeze artist are some of the diverse topics in
the collection; the topics of very few of the poems make them culturally
exclusive to Canadian children. The selections vary in their seriousness
and mood. Monochromatic images created by Merrill Fearon accompany some
of the selections, but these simplistic drawn images do little to
enhance the sentiment and content of the poetry. A more sophisticated
cover would have improved the visual appeal of the book. However, the
poems themselves are all entertaining and enjoyable to read. Highly
recommended.