The writers include Blake, Dickinson, Tennyson, Yeats, Wordsworth, and Keats. The captivating paintings by Simona Mulazanni make every page a delight. And the subject--animals, big and small, wild and tame-- has an irresistible appeal to children. William Blake's "The Tyger" burns bright in the lush image that accompanies the verse. Hillaire Belloc pays tribute to an elephant in a short, witty stanza accompanied by an adorable picture of the creature sitting on a small wood stool. Among the other poems are Marianne Moore's "A Jellyfish" and Edward Lear's charming, songlike "The Owl and the Pussycat."

"A Selection of Scholastic Book Clubs."

John Hollander has written "A Crackling of Thorns" (chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets), as well as literary criticism and children's books. He has served as editor for many poetry collections, among them "An Anthology of Poems for Young People" (with Harold Bloom). He is currently the Sterling Professor of English at Yale.

Simona Mulazanni is a successful and much loved children's book artist in Italy.