A Poem for Every Day of the Year

Product Information

February – That What We’d Do – Mary Mapes Dodge – A poem about two individuals visualising themselves as owls sitting in a tree sharing the romance of St Valentines Day. This is a sweet poem and could be used for the children to explore writing their own poems about what is would be like if they were another creature. Throughout the course of the term or year, I would collate all poems that the children had written to create our own class anthology and share in the school library. Overall this is very well thought out and beautiful collection of poetry and illustrations from start to finish, which would be very versatile in a classroom setting. With younger children I would use this book as a read aloud and share a poem a day, discussing the characteristics of each month/ season. With older children I would use the book to support and explore cross-curricular activities, such as those mentioned in the selected poems above. The Contents of A Poet for Every Day of the Year list the poem and poet for each calendar day although I prefer not to look at that properly until next year when I’ve enjoyed a daily surprise from the book. With poets from Angelou to Wordsworth there really is something for any and every reader. One of the absolute pleasures here is the attention to more marginalised poets such as those from the LGBTQIA+ community so that A Poet for Every Day of the Year feels inclusive and engaging.

Some books become lifelong treasures and A Poem for Every Night of the Year, edited by Allie Esiri, will be one of them. A handsome collection, it contains not just classics by TS Eliot and Eleanor Farjeon but modern poems by Maya Angelou and Tony Mitton. It is the best book of its kind since Charles Causley's, and a must-have for nine-plus readers. -- Amanda Craig The New Statesman April – The First of April (extract) – Anonymous – Another fun and upbeat poem that could be used to explore the history of April Fools Day and create their own version of the poem, as well as explore other key dates in history that have become an annual tradition. I don’t have too many others to compare this book to but so far, this has been my favorite. The design is colorful and cute, the poems curated here are almost all wonderful. June – Bed in Summer – Louis Stevenson – This poem could be used to explore other countries around the world and how seasons differ across continents. For example, the children could write a comparative version of the poem using a country such as Australia as focal point. They could investigate how seasons can have different characteristics or occur at alternatives times of year compared to England.

About Allie Esiri

Elke dag van het jaar een gedicht, met de natuur als thema én geschikt voor jong en oud. Meer perfect wordt het niet. Poëzieliefhebbers gaan hierin oude, favoriete, namen tegenkomen en nieuwe stemmen leren kennen. Wie nog niet into poëzie is gaat dit zeker worden. ‘Ik wou dat ik’ staat vol woorden en prenten om te koesteren; in je eentje, samen met het gezin of romantisch met je geliefde. (Ik zie al afgeleide Whatsapp-groepjes ontstaan, of nieuwe klas-rituelen.) This is a book I would definitely have in my classroom. I could see this being used as a nice, peaceful way to start the school day. I think it presents a lovely opportunity to bring the class together and create a ‘poetry environment’ and ultimately spark a child’s interest in poetry. The book captures the complexity and diversity of nature very well and as we move through it, we are made aware of the changing seasons and a variety of living things. I believe this poetry book could be used for a variety of topics/lessons, for example: March – Paper Dragons – Susan Alton Schmeltz – A fun poem in which children can make their own kites and version of the poem and describe the movement of kite in the air. This could also be linked to history and exploring traditional toys throughout the time periods. This beautiful poetry anthology that includes a new nature poem for every day of the year is likely to become a primary classroom essential.

Be that as it may, I knew some of the poems already, though of some we unfortunately only got abbreviated versions (for good reason though), while a lot were unknown to me. That’s a pretty good mix in my opinion. This book is fantastic for both adults and children - the range of poems on offer would definitely tempt anyone who is not accustomed to poetry to dive in and explore. I didn’t think poetry was ‘my thing’ but this anthology was extremely refreshing; I enjoyed the mix of traditional and contemporary poems and on top of this, the poems weren’t too lengthy or arduous to read – it felt like an extremely inclusive and accessible collection of poetry. Particular favourites of mine included Love's Philosophy by Percy Shelley, The Buddha by Tony Mitton and the very famous The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. There's also an excellent extract from Shakespeare's The Tempest, which in itself is a play of pure poetry. As such the poems are rich in diversity and carry with them varying degrees of complexity. Although published by Macmillan Children's Books, I think this collection is more suited to an adult reader. There are, certainly, poems in here that a young reader may enjoy, but I think an adult would get more out of poems that deal with larger issues such as love, death and life. September – Acorn haiku – Kim Wright - This poem could be used as part of a science/geography lesson exploring the local habitat and identification of different types of tree. Additionally, used to support writing their own versions of a haiku. Toen ik jaren geleden van Sinterklaas ‘Kom maar dichter’ kreeg wist ik nog niet wat dat boek voor mij zou betekenen. Het was niet alleen een opstapje richting een kast met 3 meter poëzie, het was daarnaast ook een boek dat mijn Bijbel zou worden. Een boek dat je leest, herleest, doorbladert en waarin je blijft hangen. Een boek om in te verdwalen en de waan van de dag los te laten. Nooit gedacht dat ik 20 jaar later weer zo een boek zou tegenkomen. Een snuister-, koesterboek. Een boek dat kan troosten, doen lachen, glimlachen, je hart verwarmen, je liefde voor de wereld kan vergroten.

Allie Esiri Press Reviews

Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 (Extended OCR) Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.11 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Old_pallet IA19229 Openlibrary_edition I am the seed that grew the tree is a collection of nature poetry (oh woah, that rhymed!) for every day of the year, selected by Fiona Waters and illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon. Surprisingly to me, it is filled with lots of poetry throughout time that wasn't created just for this collection. The poetry anthology ‘I Am The Seed That Grew The Tree’ by Kate Wilson, is a beautiful collection of poems which explore nature through a poem a day. In the introduction Kate discusses the versatility of this book, suggesting it can be used as a shared read aloud or personal read. The book can be used to share a poem a day, focus on specific dates or just to enjoy the imagery created by Frann Preston-Gannon. I particularly enjoyed the illustrations as they added context and detail to each poem, helping the mind explore the words within each poem. Before each poem is a short introduction to briefly situate the poem into its context. These are helpful and informative, and for the inexperienced reader these would act as a guide through many different styles of poetry from a huge array of writers. The cover art is, simply put, stunning. I love the design. The book acts as a sister book to the previously published A Poem for Every Night of the Year with brighter colours used to reflect the day time this time. The layout is also very simple making the book easy to dive in and out of.

Below are examples of some of the poems that I particularly liked and how I would use them in a classroom; This wonderful collection of poetry offers a beautifully illustrated poem for each day of the year and a diverse collection for every month and season. The publisher of this collection, Kate Wilson, explains her intention for this book to build upon a collection of poetry she herself had loved as a young person and ‘to make something that was more beautiful and easier to find your way into’ and ‘to make a book that helped you see the world around you’. This collection is inspiring, educational and presents a diversity of different poets and literary techniques. I truly believe there is something for everyone hidden within this book and that this would be a perfect addition to any classroom and anyone’s book shelf.As with every ' a (insert name) a day' book, I started off well. Reading a poem a day and wanting to read more was great, then I kind of forgot about it and left it at my parents which is why I read four months' worth of poems yesterday+today, whoops. This seemed like the perfect book to test the water. It contains a great verity of poems. All styles and authors. All lengths and sizes. I like that the poem for my birthday is written by someone who's name looks similar to mine... Gene (Gén).