At the Height of the Moon: A Book of Bedtime Poetry and Art

by Annette Roeder (Editor), Alison Baverstock (Editor), Matt Cunningham (Editor)

Overview

This beautifully illustrated collection of nocturnally inspired images and writing introduces children to great art and poetry, while sending them off to a dream-filled sleep.


Drawing from centuries of artistic and literary traditions from around the world, this gorgeous bedtime book pairs works of art with poems and short fiction. Divided into eight thematic sections it features dozens of double-paged spreads that families will turn to again and again as part of their bedtime routine. The carefully chosen, diverse selection of images includes works by John Singer Sargent, Georgia O’Keeffe, Utagawa Hiroshige and Henri Le Sidoner among many others, beautifully reproduced in luminous color. Accompanying these artworks are poems, mediations and short fiction that range from lighthearted verse to eerie folktales. Together these words and pictures create meaningful impressions that children will treasure and remember as they drift off to sleep—and hold onto for the rest of their lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783791374802
Publisher:	Prestel Publishing
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.87(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Alison Baverstock is the author of many books on publishing, communication and art for children including Secrets in a Box: The Art of Joseph Cornell and 13 British Artists Children Should Know (both Prestel). She is Professor of Publishing at Kingston University, UK.

Matt Cunningham is a writer and illustrator. He teaches at Morley College and Kingston University, UK.

Annette Roeder has written and illustrated numerous books for young readers, including 13 Buildings Children Should Know (Prestel). She lives outside Munich, Germany.

Table of Contents

Twilight

John Atkinson Grimshaw Lady in a Garden by Moonlight 10

Jennifer Wong Reimagined Garden: On John Sargent's 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.' 12

John Singer Sargent Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose 13

Claude Monet Water Lilies (Nymphéas) 14

Nathaniel Hawthorne The Ocean Robert Herrick Dreams 15

T. S. Eliot Preludes I Laurence Binyon The Little Dancers 16

Claude Monet The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog) 17

Henri Le Sidaner Spring Evening 18

William Wordsworth A Night in June 19

Walter de la Mare Tired Tim Edith Nesbit Song 20

Theodor Alt Late Riser 21

Jean Etienne Liotard The Chocolate Girl 22

The Best Bedtime Hot Chocolate 23

James Carter The ReallyReallyReallyTruly TrueTruth About … Teddy Bears 24

Alexej von Jawlensky The Bear Family 25

Edouard Manet Moonlight at the Port of Boulogne 26

Walt Whitman O Captain! My Captain! 27

Thomas Dekker Golden Slumbers 28

Rosso Fiorentino Musical Angel 29

Heinz Janisch Good Night! Good Night! 30

Hans Hoffmann Animal Picture (Lion) 31

Dorothy Wordsworth The Cottager to Her Infant 34

Bernardo Strozzi Sleeping Child 35

Dreamland

John Auster Fitzgerald Titania and Bottom from William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream' 36

Anonymous Reminsscences of Early Life 38

Franz de Paula Ferg A Moonlit Winter Landscape with Skaters on a Frozen River 39

Henri Rousseau The Dream 40

Judith Wright Rainforest 41

William Shakespeare The Tempest

William Allingham The Fairies 42

Edward Robert Hughes Midsummer Eve 43

Douglas Dunn Modern Love 44

Henri Le Sidaner Table in the Sun 45

Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee 46

Thomas Cole Landscape (Moonlight) 47

Valerie Bloom When Granny 48

Kazimir Malevich Red House 49

Anonymous The Story of the Star Bride 50

Georgia O'Keeffe A White Camellia 52

Georgia O'Keeffe Ladder to the Moon 55

Robert Frost After Apple-Picking 56

Franz Marc Yellow Cow 57

Paul Verlaine Cupid FALLEN 58

William Degouve de Nuncques Nocturne in the Parc Royal, Brussels 59

Moonlit Menagerie

Giovanni Segantini The Two Mothers 60

Paula Modersohn-Becker Moon Over Landscape 62

Robert Louis Stevenson The Moon 63

Ted Hughes Full Moon and Little Frieda

Edward Thomas The Owl Anonymous A Wise Old Owl 64

Utagawa Hiroshige Small Horned Owl in a Pine Tree 65

Alison Prince Rats 66

Ferdinand von Kessel The Dance of the Rats 67

Carl Spitzweg The Performing Bear 68

Randy Newman Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear 69

E.B. White Dog Around the Block 70

Gerrit Dou A Sleeping Dog Beside a Terracotta Jug, a Basket, a Pair of Clogs, and a Pile of Kindling Wood 71

Master Bertram Detail from the Grabow Altarpiece 72

Karl Rühmann Carlito Cannot Sleep 73

Sappho Fragment VI 74

Robert Burns A Red, Red Rose

Anonymous Nightingale with Roses 75

Paul Klee The Goldfish 76

Wendy Cope HUFF 77

Anonymous How the Polar Bear Made It Up with the Animals 78

Alexander Borisov Polar Bear Hunting 79

William Butler Yeats The Wild Swans at Coole 80

Caspar David Friedrich Swans in the Reeds 81

Creepy Crawlies and Things that Go Bump in the Night

Paulo Uccello The Hunt in the Forest 82

Anne Sexton Her Kind 84

Francisco José de Goya Witches' Sabbath 85

Ludger Tom Ring the Younger Animal Picture with Genet 86

Benjamin Zephaniah Nature Trail 87

Anonymous Birch Nose 88

Alexander Jakowlew Golowin Birch Trees in the Evening 91

Simon Armitage To Do List 92

Henry Fuseli The Nightmare 93

Marianne von Werefkin The Big Moon 94

Lord Alfred Tennyson The Princess: Sweet and Low 95

Annette Roeder Scaredy-Cats 96

Max Ernst Dark Gods 98

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Gipsy Song 100

Eugène Samuel Grasset Three Women and Three Wolves 101

Gustav Klimt Irrlichter (Will-o'-the-Wisp) 102

Charles Mackay The Will O' the Wisp 103

Maya Angelou Life Doesn't Frighten Me 104

Utagawa Hiroshige Moon and Flowers Persian Herbal Flower Tea 105

Minds Ablaze

Carl Friedrich Christian Welsch Crossing the Desert at Sunset 106

James Carter Where Do You Get Your Ideas From? 108

Guy Pierre Fauconnet The Sleeping Shepherd 109

Vilhelm Hammershoi Interior in Strandgade, Sunlight on the Floor 110

Jackie Kay No. 115 Dreams 111

Carol Ann Duffy 112

In Mrs Tilscher's Class

August Macke Kairouan I 113

Anonymous Hush Little Baby 114

John Frederick Peto The Poor Man's Store 115

Rachel Hadas The End of Summer 116

Max Ernst The Entire City 117

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Sleigh Ride 118

Wilfrid Gibson The Ice Cart 119

Lewis Carroll Extract from Alice in Wonderland 120

Linda Wolfsgruber A Lullaby for Bruno 121

Maximilxen Luce Furnaces at Couillet 122

Hilda Doolittle Heat 123

Margery Rehman Carnival Evening 124

Henri Rousseau Carnival Evening 125

James Abbott McNeill Whistler Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea 126

Liz Loch he ad In the Mid-Midwinter 127

Midnight and Magic

Karl Friedrich Schinkel The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night 128

Elizabeth Bishop I Am in Need of Music that Would Flow 130

Bernadino Luini Three Putti Standing atop Clouds 131

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Frost at Midnight 132

Paula Modersohn-Becker Sleeping Child 133

Robert Browning Love Among the Ruins 134

Anonymous Roman Countryside by Moonlight 135

Giovanni Battista Fontana Detail of ceiling fresco from Ambras Castle 136

A.F. Hanold A Menagerie of Animals 137

Ezra Pound In the Old Age of the Soul 138

Alexej von Jawlensky The Night 139

Adam Elsheimer The Flight into Egypt 140

Louisa May Alcott The Mother Moon 141

Otfried Preussler All Silver 141

Anonymous Next Market Day 144

Ferdinand du Puigaudeau Carnival at Night 145

Karl Rühmann Secret of the Stars 146

Vincent van Gogh Starry Night Over the Rhône 147

Roger McGough Tomorrow Has Your Name on It 150

Federico Zandomeneghi In Bed 151

John Atkinson Grimshaw Spirit of the Night 152

Lists and Notes from the English Editors 154

Editorial Reviews

2021-09-15
The poetry of bedtime in words and images.

Divided into six sections that examine various aspects of sleep (“Dreamland,” “Mind Ablaze,” and “Creepy Crawlies and Things That Go Bump in the Night,” for instance), this anthology pairs a variety of topical poems with a curated group of famous paintings meant to capture the moods expressed by the poets. It’s an exciting idea, especially as poetry is often incorrectly perceived as serious and intimidating. Sadly, though, the result of this curation is a Eurocentric period piece that reinforces more stereotypes about poetry than it dismantles. Practically every artist represented is White (Utagawa Hiroshige, represented by two works, is a lonely exception), and every human face depicted, except those in Karl Friedrcih Christian Welsch’s Crossing the Desert at Sunset, is White. There is equally scant diversity among the poets. Children should be exposed to poetry and artwork, but when every major museum in the free world is engaged in conversations about equality, representation, and inclusivity, this book isn’t going to open any doors or advance any conversations. This is a title destined to collect dust in a gift shop—not to engage readers looking to learn more about art and its various forms of expression. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Put it back to bed, it’s underslept. (Poetry. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews