The Children’s Book Review | October 31, 2018
New Poems Inspired by Art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Age Range: All Ages
Hardcover: 48 pages
Publisher: Abrams Books (2018)
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2845-7
What to Expect: Poetry, Art, History, Emotions.
Poetry is an intensely visual art; as many great poets have attested, it is a bodily as well as mental experience, which uses language to engage not just our emotions and intellect, but our senses as well. That is why this new collection from Lee Bennett Hopkins and Abrams Books is so effective: combining the visual pleasure of master works of art with poetry which is fresh, new, and uniquely tailored to the experiences of young readers, this volume brings both poetry and art to life.
World Make Way consists of eighteen new poems, each accompanying a separate work of art chosen from the Metropolitan’s vast collections; the artists span cultures and eras, ranging from Klimt in the early 1910s, to an anonymous fourteenth-century Egyptian plaster pavement fragment and Botero’s 1980 Dancing in Colombia. The poets are award-winning children’s authors from across the United States, and they bring a wide variety of perspectives to their interpretations of these classic works of art. Impressively, although each of these poems are well-suited to their child audiences they are also true to the complexity and richness of the works of art they partner; they do not hold back in exploring strong emotions or challenging themes such as poverty, racism, and sexism. As a book simply for pleasure this would make a wonderful gift for any child, but as a classroom aid it is absolutely perfect – build a lesson on art, or poetry, or both around the collection, and work in a visit to the museum itself!
Available Here:
About the Editor
Lee Bennett Hopkins is an award-winning author and poet. He has published more than 100 books of poetry, including City I Love and Behind the Museum Door. He lives in Cape Coral, Florida.
World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, was reviewed by Dr. Jen Harrison. Discover more books like World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art by following along with our reviews and articles tagged with Art, Artistic Expression, Artists, and Poetry Books For Kids.
