A Child's Garden of Verses

by Robert Louis Stevenson, Tasha Tudor (Illustrator)

Overview

Here is a delightful look at childhood, written by master poet and storyteller Robert Louis Stevenson. In this collection of sixty-six poems, Stevenson recalls the joys of his childhood, from sailing boats down a river, to waiting for the lamplighter, to sailing off to foreign lands in his imagination. Tasha Tudor's watercolor paintings evoke a simpler time in the past, and celebrate two of the things she loves most — children and nature. Her talents are the perfect match for these inspiring poems, making this a handsome gift edition that will be cherished by families for generations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689823824
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	02/01/1999
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	72
Sales rank:	59,112
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.75(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) spent his childhood in Edinburgh, Scotland, but traveled widely in the United States and throughout the South Seas. He was author of many novels, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, The Black Arrow, and Treasure Island.

Tasha Tudor (1915–2008) was a Caldecott artist with more than ninety books to her credit. She was known across the world for her glowing watercolor depictions of the American rural scene of a century ago and for her exquisite paintings of children, flowers, and animals. Tasha Tudor was also the illustrator of A Child’s Garden of Verses, The Night Before Christmas, The Springs of Joy, A Tale for Easter, A Time to Keep, The Dolls’ Christmas, All for Love, Pumpkin Moonshine, A is for Annabelle, and 1 is One, a Caldecott Honor Book.

Read an Excerpt

Bed in Summer

In winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle-light.

In summer quite the other way,

I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or hear the grown-up people's feet

Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,

When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

Table of Contents

	Bed in Summer	9
	A Thought	10
	At the Seaside	11
	Young Night Thought	12
	Whole Duty of Children	13
	Rain	14
	Pirate Story	16
	Foreign Lands	18
	Windy Nights	20
	Travels	21
	Singing	23
	Looking Forward	24
	A Good Play	25
	Where Go the Boats	26
	Auntie's Skirts	27
	The Land of Counterpane	29
	The Land of Nod	30
	My Shadow	32
	System	35
	A Good Boy	36
	Escape at Bedtime	38
	Marching Song	40
	The Cow	42
	Happy Thought	44
	The Wind	46
	Keepsake Mill	48
	Good and Bad Children	49
	Foreign Children	50
	The Sun's Travels	52
	The Lamplighter	53
	My Bed is a Boat	54
	The Moon	57
	The Swing	58
	Time to Rise	59
	Looking-Glass River	60
	Fairy Bread	62
	From a Railway Carriage	64
	Wintertime	65
	The Hayloft	66
	Farewell to the Farm	68
	North-West Passage
1	Good Night	69
2	Shadow March	70
3	In Port	71
	The Child Alone
	The Unseen Playmate	74
	My Ship and I	75
	My Kingdom	76
	Picture Books in Winter	78
	My Treasures	80
	Block City	81
	The Land of Storybooks	82
	Armies in the Fire	84
	The Little Land	86
	Garden Days
	Night and Day	90
	Nest Eggs	92
	The Flowers	94
	Summer Sun	96
	The Dumb Soldier	98
	Autumn Fires	100
	The Gardener	102
	Historical Associations	104
	Envoys
	To Willie and Henrietta	106
	To my Mother	107
	To Auntie	108
	To Minnie	110
	To my Name-Child	113
	To any Reader	116
	Acknowledgements	118
	Robert Louis Stevenson	120
	A Short Biography

Editorial Reviews

A plethora of poetry books arrive just in time for National Poetry Month. Now available in a board book edition, A Child's Garden of Verses, compiled by Cooper Edens, pairs eight of Robert Louis Stevenson's poems with turn-of-the-century illustrations to captivate a child's imagination. For instance, "Happy Thought" ("The world is so full of a number of things,/ I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings") is embedded like a placard within a pen-and-ink by E. Mars (1900), while opposite, a 1940 illustration by Ruth Mary Hallock depicts a happy assembly of children and kittens, gathering for a snack break after a game of croquet. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Rendered in brilliant candy-shop colors, Joanna Isles's folk-art designs, whimsical characters and striking typestyles put a beguiling face on a beloved work: Abrams's edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses glows with charm and vitality.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This 'Child's Garden' is a coffee-table book for children or the grown-ups who love them. (Boston Herald -- Sunday Edition)

From the Publisher

2017-09-18
A sumptuous reissue of the classic children's collection.First published in Great Britain in 1885, Stevenson's "Garden," Alexander McCall Smith tells readers in his enlightening new foreword, has been in print ever since. Given the privileged, white, colonialist perspective glimpsed in many of these 64 lyric poems, today's audience may wonder what gives this volume such staying power. Stevenson's nostalgia for the unfettered cares of childhood comes powerfully across throughout. Modern children may have a hard time envisioning his Victorian "Auntie's Skirts" as "they trail behind her up the floor, / And trundle after through the door." More problematically, his worldly vantage is shockingly dated at best: "Little Indian, Sioux or Crow, / Little frosty Eskimo, / Little Turk or Japanee, / O! don't you wish that you were me?" But Stevenson's ability to craft and describe other realms still soars, demonstrating that the imagination can transport one out of anything—illness, boredom, even loneliness. His crisp depictions of winter, causing "tingling thumbs," and appreciation of the childhood hardship of having to go to bed in summer "When all the sky is clear and blue," invite children of any age to "look / Through the windows of this book," and "in another garden, play." Vistas real and imagined blossom again in Stevenson and Foreman's caring hands—but caregivers will want to choose the blooms they share with care. (Poetry. 5-10)

Kirkus Reviews