Cullinan, Bernice E., ed. 1996. A jar of tiny stars: poems by NCTE award-winning poets. Illustrated by Andi MacLeod. Homesdale, Pennsylvania: Boyds Mill Press.
A jar of tiny stars is a collection of poems by poets that have won the National Council of Teachers of English award for excellence in poetry for children. There are ten poets featured in this collection: David McCord, Aileen Fisher, Karla Kuskin, Myra Cohn Livingston, Eve Merriam, John Ciardi, Lilian Moore, Arnold Adoff, Valerie Worth, and Barbara Esbensen. The collection has five poems from each poet. Also included in the book is a brief introduction to each author.
The first poet presented in A jar of tiny stars is David McCord. The book shares McCord�s philosophy on writing poems for children: To write for the young I had to write for myself. I write out of myself, about things I did as a boy, about things that are fairly timeless as subjects (75). The five poems included in this collection by McCord are Every Time I Climb A Tree, The Pickety Fence, Snowman, The Star In The Pail and I Have A Book. The poems range in subject and style. My personal favorite is The Pickety Fence. The rhythm of The Pickety Fence is magical: The pickety fence/ The pickety fence/ Give it A lick it�s/ The pickety fence/ Give it a lick it�s a clickety fence/ Give it a lick its/ A lickety fence/ Give it a lick/ Give it a lick/ Give it a lick/ with a rickety stick/ Pickety/ Pickety/ Pickety/ Pick (5). It�s fun to read; it�s fun to listen to.
The second poet presented in A jar of tiny stars is Aileen Fisher. Aileen�s words of wisdom were as follows: If I write something I like, children are pretty apt to like it, too. I guess what it amounts to is I never grew up (77). The five poems included in this collection by Fisher are: My Puppy, My Cat and I, Cricket Jackets, Out in the Dark and Daylight, and an excerpt from Listen, Rabbit. Fisher�s poems are all about nature--more specifically children delighting in nature. Many of the poems record a child�s joy of playing with animals. For example, My Puppy is about a child and his or her puppy and the joy of being licked by a playful pup.
The third poet presented inA jar of tiny stars is Karla Kuskin. Kuskin included this comment, If there were a recipe for a poem, these would be the ingredients: word sounds, rhythm, description, feeling, memory, rhyme, and imagination (17). The five poems by Kuskin in this collection are: Hughbert and the Glue, The Meal, I Woke Up This Morning, Winter Clothes, and Lewis Has A Trumpet. My personal favorite was Hughbert and the Glue. In the poem, Hugh and his glue get into quite a sticky mess which ends up involving the whole family. Hugh�s father loudly said to Hugh: From now on I would rather That you did not play with glue (18). The poem reminded me of myself in that many people have told me to stay away from glue!
The fourth poet presented in A jar of tiny stars is Myra Cohn Livingston. Livingston believes that the point of poetry is to arrive at an experience�to feel, to bring our emotions and sensitivities into play (79). The five poems by Livingston in this collection are: Kittens, Lemonade Stand, Arthur Thinks On Kennedy, Shell, and Martin Luther King. Her poems range in subject matter from the trivial joys of summer in Lemonade Stand to the more serious poems like Martin Luther King. Her poems express a variety of feelings and emotions.
The fifth poet included in A jar of tiny stars is Eve Merriam. Merriam says, What I�d like to stress more than anything else is the joy of the sounds of language (33). Her poems in this collection include: Gooseberry, Juice Berry, Loose Berry Jam, How To Eat A Poem, Skip Rope Rhyme for Our Time, Windshield Wiper, and Umbilical. My favorite would have to be How To Eat A Poem which shows the pure joy of finding or reading a good poem. Although I must admit that Skip Rope Rhyme for Our Time is also enjoyable. I never would have thought that junk mail could be the subject of a poem!
The sixth poet included in A jar of tiny stars is John Ciardi. Ciardi says, Poetry and learning are both fun, and children are full of an enormous relish for both. My poetry is just a bubbling up of a natural foolishness, and the idea that maybe you can make language dance a bit (39). His poems in this collection are Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast, What Did You Learn At the Zoo, The Happy Family, Sometimes I Feel This Way, and Summer Song. My favorites�I couldn�t choose just one�are Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast and Sometimes I Feel This Way. The first is a classic example of why narrative poems�especially humorous narrative poems�are so popular with children. The rhythm of the language in addition to the subject matter makes this poem unforgettable. The poem in its six stanzas shows how incapable the dad is in making breakfast. The poem is full of the descriptions of each attempt at a waffle. For example, in the first stanza the waffle looked like gravel pudding. It tasted something awful (40). My next favorite poem is Sometimes I Feel This Way. This poem was new to me whereas I was already familiar with Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast. In this poem, the author shows us an honest portrait of what it means to be human. A child is wrestling between his head that wants him to be good and his head that wants him to be bad. I think it is a poem everyone can relate to!
The seventh poet included in A jar of tiny stars is Lilian Moore. Moore feels that poetry should be like fireworks, packed carefully and artfully, ready to explode with unpredictable effects (47). Moore�s poems in this collection include If You Catch A firefly, I Left My Head, Mine, Recess, and Construction. My favorite poem by Moore was I Left My Head. I left my head somewhere today. Put it down for just a minute. Under the table? On A Chair? Wish I were able to say where. Everything I need is in it! (48). The poem captures a very real experience!!! It is always a joy to find a poem that is so true to human experience.
The eighth poet included in A jar of tiny stars is Arnold Adoff. Adoff wants his poems to sing as well as to say (53). Adoff�s five poems in the collection include: Flavors: Mama is Chocolate, Flavors: Daddy is Vanilla, Flavors: Me is Better Butter, Coach Says: Listen Sonny, and an excerpt from Black is Brown is Tan. In Adoff�s poems spacing between words is key. While his words are not trying to form a shape (like a circle, flower, etc), the unusual spacing helps to convey the poem�s message.
The ninth poet included in A jar of tiny stars is Valerie Worth. Worth�s message to the reader is never forget that the subject is as important as your feeling (59). The five poems by Worth in this collection are as follows: Dinosaurs, Lawnmower, Giraffe, Safety Pin, and Pebbles. In each of her poems, Worth takes a simple subject�like a safety pin�and makes an artistic statement. For example, in Dinosaur Worth comments that although dinosaurs have been long extinct from our world that they still walk about heavily in everybody�s head (60).
The tenth poet included in A jar of tiny stars is Barbara Esbensen. Esbensen feels that poetry should know your block off (67). The five poems in this collection by Esbensen are as follows: Bat, Elephant, My Cat, Pencils, and Snake. One image that struck me in Esbensen�s work is in her poem Pencil. The line is There is a long story living in the shortest pencil (71). For some reason, that line just resonates true for me.
The poets and their poems included in this collection are outstanding. The book was enjoyable to read. It provided the reader with different styles of poetry ranging from humorous to serious. Each poet has a unique style and voice. This book could serve as a beginning point for exploring the authors� works. In fact, the book includes a brief bibliography for each of the authors presented.
The illustrations of this book were simple black and white sketches. Andi MacLeod was the illustrator for the poems. Marc Nadel provided the portrait sketches of each of the authors. While the sketches are simple, they complement the text quite well. I seem to favor the illustrations of my favorite poems. For example, I liked the illustration of Hugh�s sticky calamity on page eighteen. Some of the illustrations are move powerful than others. For example, an illustration of a shell�while being what the subject of the poem is about�fails to enlighten the poem. However, in poems such as I Woke Up This Morning the illustrations capture the essence and emotions of the poem. The picture enhances the poem a great deal!