How can you put a rainbow in your pocket? Seemingly the little child in this book has an answer to what sounds like a riddle and its one she shares with readers in her poetic outpourings her musings, preoccupations and daydreams. `Excuse me, /Little ant,/Could you tell me/Which school this is,/Where you queue in such a neat line? she asks one day as she concerns herself with the minutiae of lifeThose of us who work as teachers of young children are from our observations, well aware of that state of being transfixed by the moment, being in the here and now the kind of contemplative state that the child in this book appears to be in as she observes that line of tiny ants at her feet. On another day she has this to offer: `I wish people/Would talk using only nice words / Poetry,/ Songs,/ Not harsh words/ That prod/ And poke you. Those of us who work as teachers of young children are from our observations, well aware of that state of being transfixed by the moment, being in the here and now the kind of contemplative state that the child in this book appears to be in as she observes that line of tiny ants at her feet. On another day she has this to offer: `I wish people/Would talk using only nice words / Poetry,/ Songs,/ Not harsh words/ That prod/ And poke you. to compose her collages, which decorate the white pages with simple, delicate images that have a child-like quality in tune with the narrative voice. -- Jill Bennet * Red Reading Hub *
