The Sweet and Sour Animal Book

This book is fun for children of all ages. It made a great birthday gift for a great father who happens to love Langston Hughes.

This book helps children make the transition in reading poetry from the beloved Dr. Suess to reading more sophisticated writing. My children loved the rhymes, and related to the stories. Like Robert Louis Stevenson in A Child's Garden of Verses, Langston Hughes captures childhood in his verses. Many current writers of children's poetry appeal to children using gross stories of bodily functions and gum in the hair. Langston Hughes gives kids more credit than that, but still appeals to children. What kid hasn't wanted to look down on "those stuck up clowns" in real life? This book was entertaining, and made my children want to hear more from this author.

This book is a wonderful tribute to one of America's finest poets. The book appeals to both children and adults. The poems are whimsical and fun. In my own classroom, the children list these poems as some of their favorites. The art work inspires my students to achieve as much as they can in their own art work. The introduction and afterward provide the reader with a history of the Harlem art's movement and Langston Hughes' contribution to this movement. The information provided could be shared with children, however it is written for advanced readers. Overall, this book is one of the most well thought out books that I have seen.

Although I enjoyed this book as a Langston Hughes fan, I was not sure that the children's artwork and Hughes' poetry would be appreciated by children. However, my 5-yr-old clearly responds to the rhyming text and enjoys the art. I've overheard him reciting lines from this book by memory. The rhythym is soothing and the children's art is charming. This is not Hughes at his most profound- (couldn't he have chosen "walrus" to star on the "w" page instead of a white mouse?) and does not teach kids much about the alphabet ("m" is for monkey, but we never hear that word in the poem, instead the monkey's name- "jocko"), but it will appeal to their sense of rhyme and whimsy. I'm leaving it 5 stars because of the beautiful art and catchy poems.

The Sweet And Sour Animal book is a good colletion of animal poems. It's illisterated with paper mache art.