The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America

"Donald Hall has put together a long-needed treasure of a book. At a time when most poetry for children sounds as if it were written by a sponge dipped in sugared milk he has brought together the true best of a great and ignored tradtition. I wish every American child could grow up with it. I wish I had it as a child."--John Ciardi "Excellent in every way...it shows us, as no other evidence could, how often and how greatly our society has changed its conception of the child's mind and world."--Richard Wilbur "[Hall's] fascinating anthology will remain valuable, both as a source of the poems we once loved that have vanished from later collections, and as a fascinating and well-researched history of the form."--Alison Lurie, The New York Times Book Review "Hall's choices make for a fascinating picture of changing literary tastes, as well as providing poetry lovers of all ages with a reference of approximately two hundred fifty poems--some obscure, some well known--to read and recite."--Newsday "Brings out the kid in any of us, effortlessly making the point that a true source of poetry, and maybe the truest, rests in the child's capacity for savage innocence and eternal wonderment."--David Lehman, The Washington Post Book World "I'll return to this book again and again, whether or not I have a child on my knee."--The Christian Science Monitor "Not only a well-selected sampling of individual poets but also a silhouette of a developing literature over four centuries."--Booklist "Hall has done an exemplary job in assembling from the pages of long defunct children's magazines and antique anthologies this panorama of poems for American Children....Newly discovered gems shine alongside old chestnuts."--Commentary I heartily recommend this anthology to children of all ages....[It] combines a child's heart with enormous genius. Buy it and read it aloud and reminisce, and be the warmer and younger for it."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer "An entertaining collection of old and new, this is an anthology to add to the family library, but not to keep on the shelf. Circulate it among family and friends, and, above all, read it aloud."--The Sunday Boston Globe "[A] brilliant and engaging anthology."--The Times Educational Supplement