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    A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
    A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
    A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
    Ebook185 pages36 minutes

    A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith

    By Robert Louis Stevenson and Jessie Willcox Smith

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    About this ebook

    A Child’s Garden of Verses is a book written by Robert Louis Stevenson – it is here accompanied by the splendid illustrations of Jessie Willcox Smith. Stevenson (1850 – 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, most famous for penning Treasure Island, and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His A Child’s Garden of Verses is a collection of poetry, which first appeared in 1885, under the title of Penny Whistles. It contains about 65 poems including the cherished classics ‘Foreign Children’, ‘The Lamplighter’, ‘The Land of Counterpane’, ‘Bed in Summer’, ‘My Shadow’ and ‘The Swing’.

    Jessie Willcox Smith (1863 – 1935) was one of the most prominent female illustrators in the United States during the Golden Age of American Illustration. She was also a prolific contributor to literary novels and magazines during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most notable was her ongoing relationship with Good Housekeeping, including the long-running ‘Mother Goose’ series. Smith’s style changed drastically through her life. In the beginning of her career she used dark lined borders to delineate brightly coloured objects, and in later works she masterfully softened lines and colours – until they almost disappeared. Presented alongside the text, her illustrations bring further joy to Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry.

    Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s literature – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration. We publish rare and vintage Golden Age illustrated books, in high-quality colour editions, so that the masterful artwork and story-telling can continue to delight both young and old.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781473388499
    A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
    Author

    Robert Louis Stevenson

    Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.

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    Reviews for A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith

    4/5

    51 ratings43 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was given to me in 1977 by my good friend Melanie from Pittsburgh, who was replacing one of the few books I owned in childhood. The illustrations have been seared into my memory since I was five. Robert Louis Stevenson's poems are just right for children to wonder and to love. More than forty years later, I have to say--Thanks, Melanie!
    • 4/5
      Most of these poems were timeless. They were written for and about children from the 1800's, but can apply to children in 2018. Examples include poems about bed time, playing, imagination, and adventures. That being said, there are some poems that are not culturally acceptable in 2018. I think that this book of poetry can be used as a great teaching tool. It is also a great chance to show students how far we have come.
    • 5/5
      I love Child's Garden of Verses and have several copies with different illustrations. This one is one of my favorites with illustrations by George Trimmer. My favorites are The Cow, The Swing, The Land of Counterpane, and My Shadow.
    • 4/5
      Summary:A great book of classic poetry that describes what children do during the day, listening to their elders and being thankful for what they have. This is a classic book with wonderful drawings by Eloise Wilkin to go along with the very 1950's style poetry. For example: "A child should always say what's true, and speak when he is spoken to, and behave mannerly at table: at least as far as he is able." Review:I loved this book as a child but did not read it to my kids. It is really outdated but I love the pictures and find that I am drawn to anything Eloise Wilkin put her hands on. I also have the version of Hilda Boswell's illustrations that are similar but have a different quality. These books will always be around because they are classics but every verse may not be read to children because the parents may have different views of a child's role in the world being much more active than passive.
    • 2/5
      These poems are whimsical and easy for children to relate to. It was easy to understand the subjects of the poems. This book would be appropriate for children in 4th grade and up.
    • 5/5
      i loved this book when i was a child and i love it just as much now
    • 5/5
      A hardcover version of this collection of poems written by Robert Louis Stevenson over 100 years ago entertained me and my siblings when we were children, and this version, with its watercolor illustrations by Tasha Tudor, brought back many memories. Stevenson's poems were among the first for children, and are all about simpler times, when children sent model sailboats down rivers, played in the garden until the lamplighters came out at dusk, and played with toy soldiers for hours on end. I think that these poems would be wonderful to share with a class as a read aloud, and could be compared with what children do often nowadays for entertainment and play. Because most of the poems are fairly simple, this collection might also be a vehicle for introducing students to writing their own poetry.
    • 5/5
      An amazing author puts together amazing poems! This is a wonderful book for any aged reader & makes poetry very fun. Shows how beautiful poetry can be!
    • 5/5
      Outstanding poetry for kids and their parents, this edition is the most delightfully illustrated (by Gyo Fujikawa).
    • 4/5
      This is a must have book for every library. I recently purchased one for my own. I had this book read to me over and over again as a child and was told not too long ago that it was one of my mother's favorites. If an adult can read something to a child "over and over" and still keep it as a favorite, it must be great- right? My favorite poem is still "how I love to go up so high on my swing..."
    • 4/5
      A great collection of poetry for young children.The artwork is also very delightful.
    • 4/5
      I love this edition - a Dover hardback with beautiful dark green cover, vellum-like dust jacket and red satin bookmark ribbon. Looking forward to enjoying these poems - naive and playful, though tinged with some ominous subtle melancholy.
    • 4/5
      A great collection of children's poetry.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed opinions of this collection of poems. I read this aloud to my older son several years ago and he loved the poems, he even memorized several of them. He especially had fun memorizing My Shadow. I've just now finished reading it to my 8yo and have to say he was not impressed. We read a two-page spread every school day as part of our homeschool. Though the poems are written for children, they are written for Victorian children and the 8yo didn't understand half of the words used so we spent a lot of time discussing what each poem was really about and how it applied to things he would recognize in his life today. Sometime he'd think the poem was OK and he didn't dread me reading it but mostly he just thought they were boring. Myself, there are several of the popular poems that I think are wonderful: Bed in Summer, My Shadow, and Picture Books in Winter especially. Some others I'd rather do without.This edition is particularly nice as it is profusely illustrated with sometimes several pictures per poem by contemporary children's book artists of the time such as Jessie Wilcox Smith and C.M. Burd along with a host of others. I just love the illustrations and could pull this book off the shelf and just browse through it for pure enjoyment. The 8yo though did not appreciate the old-fashioned pictures especially when he couldn't tell the boys from the girls. However, this is poetry I think every child should be exposed to, some will enjoy, others will not. For one, my son will forever remember the name "Robert Louis Stevenson".
    • 5/5
      Great poems about childhood. They remind me of how I felt as a child. With wonder at every corner.
    • 4/5
      4PAge range: 4-8 years.Radical Change: I don't think radical change applies to this book.Selected poem: "Foreign Lands" (p. 22)
    • 4/5
      There is a reason Robert Louis Stevenson is so well-remembered. He had a knack for finding the right word in the right place, and his poems about childhood always hit the right spot.The illustrations in this book complement the rhymes perfectly.Please note that this edition is oversized, and it may be difficult to put on your bookshelf.
    • 3/5
      This is the perfect first poetry book to add to a child's personal library. The poems range from very short to page long, with focus on nature, fantasy, make-believe, and other fun activities of childhood.
    • 5/5
      The poems in this edition are selected for the modern child from Stevenson's popular collection. I had these poems memorized as a child, and loved reading them to my own children. Now, here's a shorter version that my grandkids can enjoy. The poems are beautifully illustrated with paintings that evoke those same feelings of childhood as the poetry does. What a wonderful introduction to both poetry and painting!
    • 5/5
      This is a personal favorite book of poetry from my childhood. I treasure this book, share it with my grandchildren and will leave it to Damon when I pass. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Two of my favorite poems are in this book. The swing poem and my shadow.
    • 4/5
      The poems mostly have to do with going off to imaginary lands, utilizing common things in a playful fashion, and enjoying the wonderous time of childhood while it lasts. It's all touched very heavily by nostalgia - I don't know anything about Robert Louis Stevenson's life, but it seems he really wanted his adult life to be simpler and less soul-destroying, ha ha. I think it's kind of funny how adults wax nostalgic about the simpleness of childhood; quite clearly children don't feel it's simple or wonderous very much of the time. ;)The illustrations by Gyo Fujikawa are also sweetly nostalgic, full of cherubic boys and girls, lush grasses, delicately pretty flowers, butterflies, and birds, etc. I think the artwork was originally published in the 1950's and you can tell - very emblematic of that time. Quite a lovely gift book; some classics could serve as read alouds during a storytime.
    • 4/5
      A Child's Garden of Verses is the epitome of poetry for and about children. The imagination of a child grows wild and free among the pages. Hopes and fears are expressed as only children can. The sense of wonder and innocence resonates as reminders to all adults about how the world once was.
    • 2/5
      Pretty boring and lacking in any evidence of technical ability. But occasionally cute, I guess.
    • 5/5
      Belonged to Gramma Spray. She inscribed it and gave it to my daughter in 1991.
    • 3/5
      Whether your child has difficulty falling asleep, or wants to escape into fairyland, this book will satisfy all those desires. Short poems to amuse, long ones to lull and quiet; poems about singing, swinging, and travelling - everything a child does in his young life are detailed in these poems. The illustrations are simple, but give the poem just enough visual detail to entrance the listening child, or reading child. Colours are expressive, and reflect the mood of the poem. Sneaking robbers hush howling dogs and swings soar into the wild blue to join the birds.Though this set of poems might be a bit old fashioned nowadays, they still have merit in lives. There are still swings, windy nights, forests and jungles (real and imaginary) and there is always bedtime.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the first books I read while I was still in grade school. It was part of the reading of Robert Louis Stevenson that made him one of my lifetime favorite authors. "I have a little shadow". I still have the copy of this book that belonged to my mother when she was a young girl.
    • 5/5
      This is a book of poems that is suitable for children in the early childhood level. Kids will love the catchy poems and colorful pictures in this book.
    • 5/5
      Stevenson can not simply sit quietly on a shelf. His works beg to be lifted and opened for new worlds to discover. As a child, he was lonely and ill and many of the poems in this collection for children exude that sense of isolation.

      I'm sure everyone has their favorites, but mine was always THE LAMPLIGHTER. At my school in Melbourne, we would have a midday break of tea and biscuits, and my teacher would recite the beginning of this poem. It was Stevenson's ode to a world quickly changing, as electricity replaced gaslamps in the late 19th century.

      My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky
    • 4/5
      I remember owning an abridged version of this book as a child. I later located a copy of the complete version in a library to read. I just re-read the complete version. The poems are age appropriate for children, but I suspect many of them are a bit dated for today's children. Still many of the poems stand the test of time. The edition I read was from 1905 with illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith. These are watercolor plates chosen to illustration some of the poems. Most poems are accompanied by line drawings as well.

    Book preview

    A Child's Garden of Verses - Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith - Robert Louis Stevenson

    A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES

    ROBERT LOVIS STEVENSON

    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

    JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH

    MCMV

    A CHILD’S GARDEN

    OF VERSES

    TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM

    FROM HER, BOY

    FOR the long nights you lay awake

    And watched for my unworthy sake:

    For your most comfortable hand

    That led me through the uneven land:

    For all the story-books you read:

    For all the pains you comforted:

    For all you pitied, all you bore,

    In sad and happy days of yore:—

    My second Mother, my first Wife,

    The angel of my infant life—

    From the sick child, now well and old,

    Take, nurse, the little book you hold!

    And grant it, Heaven, that all who read

    May find as dear a nurse at need,

    And every child who lists my rhyme,

    In the bright, fireside, nursery clime,

    May hear it in as kind a voice

    As made my childish days rejoice!

    R. L. S.

    CONTENTS

    TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM

    THE CHILD ALONE

    GARDEN DAYS

    ENVOYS

    ILLUSTRATIONS

    FROM DRAWINGS IN COLOURS

    BY JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH

    BED IN SUMMER

    In winter I get up at night

    And dress by yellow candle-light.

    FOREIGN LANDS

    I held the trunk with both my hands

    And looked abroad on foreign lands.

    THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE

    I was the giant great and still

    That sits upon the pillow-hill,

    MY SHADOW

    He

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