I Never Did That Before

by Lilian Moore

Poems celebrate events in the lives of children, including riding down a hill alone on a sled, making a new friend, the taste of a pickle, and discovering that last year's clothes no longer fit.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Lilian Moore grew up in New York, received a degree in teaching from Hunter College, and did graduate work at Columbia University. She attended college during the Depression, so job opportunities were few. She worked for the Bureau of Educational Research, helping children who could not read in their Reading Clinic. Ms. Moore was also a reading specialist for the New York Board of Education. She trained teachers and did extensive research into reading difficulties.

She was the editor of Scholastic's first paperback book club, the Arrow Book Club, beginning in 1957. As she said, "Imagine making it possible for these youngsters to choose and buy good books for the price of comics!" She was an editor at Wonder Books, Thomas Y. Crowell, and contributor to Humpty Dumpty magazine.

In addition, Ms. Moore was a founding member of the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Ms. Moore died on July 20, 2004, at the age of 95.

She is best known for her poetry and easy-to-read books.

Reviews

[RaeLene]

Red Sled: a lyrical poem about a sled red down the hill with the wind.

[Cheryl]

Very kid-friendly. Maybe not Lillian Moore's most powerful work, but fun. My favorite poem is the same one that most of the other reviewers mentioned. I do believe that there are enough in this book to permit me to quote one of them, under the 'fair use' principle.

Someone

The best kind of
grown-up to take
for a walk

is someone

who sees the sense
of peeking through a fence,

who understands
you don't have to
hold hands,

who won't worry
if you don't hurry,

whom it won't disturb
if you walk the curb.

We took a nice walk
today,
grandpa and I.

[Liana]

This book was given to me by my favorite teacher in public school. :'3 There's lots of cute poems in this book to keep anyone entertained.~

[Amy]

Some of my favorites -
'Someone' about taking a walk, from a young child's perspective
'Pear Juice' about the wonders of biting into a pear
'Monkey Bars' - because my uncle and I were talking about monkey bars the other day, and I don't see them on playgrounds anymore - that, and the fact that when I was a child, it was perfectly acceptable to have a concrete surface under play equipment!

[Lauren]

"Someone". I loved the little boys sense of finding the best person to walk with, which was came to as an analogy of finding the best person to walk with in life.

[Danielle Miskin]

Poem: Someone

It was interesting how it sounded some similarities of older people and younger people. How they can connect. Pg. 19

[James]

I read the poem Scary Bear from this book. It focuses on being scared at night to sleep. I felt like all the poems addressed from this author deal with real things children think about and focus on.

[Megan]

Poems about everyday childhood experiences.

[Ta'Mera]

These are poems about life experience. They are really fun poems.