Families will return to this beautiful package again and again. Nineteen poems, from Robert Louis Stevenson to Jack Prelutsky, selected by Natalie Merchant, inspired the arrangements for her 2010 CD (of the same name, tucked into the back cover).
Artist Barbara McClintock gets the beats just right, as with "Equestrienne" by Rachel Field: her vignettes show the "girl in pink" balancing on one foot atop her "milk-white horse," while Merchant's instrumental coda invites children to imagine the performer's routine. In a more comic vein, the scenes for "Adventures of Isabel" by Ogden Nash feature a resourceful girl who can stand up to witches and giants. One of the most moving images, to accompany "If No One Ever Marries Me" by Laurence Alma-Tadema, depicts an elegant woman leading a girl on a pony through town; McClintock leaves it to children to decide which of them narrates. Children will gain more meaning with each rereading. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness