Changes: A Child’s First Poetry Collection

Published in time to mark what would have been the 100th birthday of acclaimed author/editor Zolotow, this collection of 28 seasonally organized poems celebrates the delightful, unexpected moments that arise as the months pass, temperatures change, and the Earth transforms itself. The poems’ brevity, repetition, and intimate focus on small discoveries, observations, and sensations make them especially well suited to readers encountering poetry for the first time. The opening entry, “Change,” sets a contemplative, thought-provoking tone that will whet appetites for the poems that follow: “The winter/ still stings/ clean and cold and white/ as it did last year.... It is only I/ who have changed.” Likewise, the bright palette and cheery atmosphere of Beeke’s scenery will leave children anticipating picnics, seaside jaunts, Halloween chills, and the first snow of winter. Ages 3–6. Illustrator’s agency: MB Artists. (Apr.)