30 January 2008

What is a brother?

Inspired by Gauntlets' most recent post, and by the recent high levels of brotherly friction hereabouts, I'll share this poem by Mary Ann Hoberman:

Brother

I had a little brother
And brought him to my mother
And I said I want another
Little brother for a change.
But she said don't be a bother
So I took him to my father
And I said this little bother
Of a brother's very strange.

But he said one little brother
Is exactly like another
And every little brother
Misbehaves a bit he said.
So I took the little bother
From my mother and my father
And put the little bother
Of a brother back to bed.

Came across this in a book called Here's a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry that my mom gave me and the boys for Christmas. Fun book; I really enjoyed it the first ten times through (hah!), and find that reading these poems over and over is not nearly as annoying as the repetition of certain other books...and we all know that's a huge point in any book's favor! The illustrations are what would probably be termed "whimsical," but in my opinion are firmly within the charming and well done art of that genre.

Anyone else have favorite first-poetry type books that will both "edify and delight" the preschool set? Always looking for a good one...hard to find one where the quality of the illustrations matches the quality of the writing (unless of course, the quality in question is poor, in which case the market is flooded.)

p.s. I'm sure, of course, that none of Rebekah's new boy's siblings will ever have cause to note that "brother" is just "bother" with another "r."

4 comments:

Dawn said...

Excellent point. Our little bother is screaming it out in the other room as I type. What charming creatures, brothers. ;)

As for poetry books, we like The Children's Treasury of Classic Poetry by Armadillo Press, mostly because it compiles all the stuff we want them to read anyway. For memory work, we like Langston Hughes poetry for children, but I have yet to find them compiled and illustrated.

I look forward to checking out the one you mention here! Thanks!

Rebekah said...

I had a good one growing up, but now I can't remember what it was called. I'll ask my mom and report. Sometime.

Reb. Mary said...

Thanks!
No hurry, Rebekah :)

Dawn said...

I forgot to mention Eric Carle's Animals Animals. Very good for the really little guys.