You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

by John Ciardi, Edward Gorey (Illustrator)

‘Thirty-five imaginative and humorous poems for an adult and a child to read aloud together. . . . The entertaining verses are varied as to length, rhythm, and subject and are illustrated with harmoniously amusing drawings.’ —BL.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Picture Books, Humor

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

John Anthony Ciardi was an American poet, translator, editor, writer and etymologist.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are at least 20 poems in this collection by John Ciardi for children. The poems remind me a whole lot of Shel Silverstein and it makes me think that he read things like this and Edward Gorey when he came up with his poems. I don't know why I never put that together before. This was written in the early 60s so Shel could have seen this growing up.

Edward Gorey makes little doodles and picture for each poem. They aren't amazing, but interesting. The poems are silly and absurd and surreal and I like that about them. Life is pondered out in these little sayings and all I have to say is Tigers and cats sure do like to eat a lot of people and other creatures. Stay away from them.

I enjoy this, but I think I would stick with Shel Silverstein.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mostly charming, whimsical, collection of 35 poems for children written by John Ciardi – American poet, editor and translator - and imagined in pictures by the inimitable Edward Gorey. The verses fall somewhere between Dr Seuss and Edward Lear, although the material’s more prosaic: domestic mice stalked by inefficient cats, tigers, eels and bears are juxtaposed with scenes of family life. The animal pieces were definitely my favourites, the adults in other poems were a bit of a dull bunch, and their families oddly conservative. But the real draw’s the plethora of Edward Gorey illustrations - Gorey and Ciardi were close friends, who met when Gory was a student in Ciardi’s creative writing classes at Harvard. As for the images, these are not the melancholy or macabre pieces frequently associated with Gorey’s work, they’re lighter, more exuberant and more humorous, almost akin to Quentin Blake’s style at times, yet still unmistakably Gorey.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published to acclaim in the first years of the 60s, Ciardi’s clever verse suffers about half the time from that winking eye that some adults sport when talking to kids while only paying half attention to their first audience because the other half is reserved for the grown-ups. Some of the poems reflect Madmen age values (dad the disaster in the kitchen when mom sleeps late). Some endorse the value of a well-placed spanking (“How Frightful Children Grow Better”: “The Frightful Child / Grew sweet and mild, / and made them glad they got him. / Boys may seem bad / But a good dad / Can prove they’re good—at bottom.”). Some take macabre delight in close encounters with wild animals (sharks, tigers, and bears), two fatally, one a warning. Two are the inevitable cat poems. Half are written for adults to read to children and half (with a first grade vocabulary) are meant for children to read to adults—hence the title. This device, I think, provoked the awards (from teachers of English) and is a worthy one, poetry made interactive. Among the collections best poems are the child read poems. “I Wouldn’t,” for example, tells of a mouse house where the mice don’t answer the cat’s invitations to play. It begins: “There’s a mouse house / In the hall wall / With a small door / By the hall floor / Where the fat cat / sits all day…” Or course, the mice are only being smart but the rhythm and rhymes here are delightful. The child read poems about being like the wind, about Halloween, about sharing (“Little Bits”), a wise hen, a lost light-house mouse, and about a dream about the moon. These are all wonderfully charming, nuanced, funny and accessible without condescension. If only half the poems work unabashedly and unreservedly well that is yet nothing to sneeze at—try your hand at poetry for children and see how low a batting average can go. The Gorey drawings are first rate, gracefully subversive and eye-catching.

[Cheri Ragland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This clever collection of poems is great! The book demonstrates rhythmical poems at their best. It also illustrates many different types of poems, such as, feelings, lessons on animals, camping must haves, and many other silly ways to incorporate life into a child's poem. My favorite poem was "Mind You, Now", it states to "Never stroll away from camp, Without a brush, a comb, A compass, and a postage stamp, To mail yourself back home....". This particular poem talks about traveling in a silly way. The best part of this book is the ability to read it with a child/ren. It is set up so that an adult reads the first poem, a child the second, adult the third, and so forth. The words for the child are basic first grade vocabulary. It is amazing to see a child light up when they can actually read something all the way through!
In a classroom setting this book would be useful to teach children how to read and how to expand their vocabulary. Weekly reading assignments as a class, everyone could participate and share it with their parents. The book does have a lot of humor, keeping the children engaged. It has black and white images throughout the pages, which I believe are okay for this particular book because the reader, young or old, does not get distracted when trying to read the words. The illustrations are very cute and age appropriate, they have children type drawings that other children can relate to as well.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eve wants this book to have 5 stars and Lincoln wants to give it 4 because “he’s not as into poems as books”. But he likes reciting poems. These have a great rhythm and I loved reading them out loud. A lot of them made us laugh and I would recommend it as a great book to start with if you’ve never read poetry to your kids.

[Chang Ohana]

We picked this up for poetry tea time. The little ones loved it. Didn't want to stop till they reached the end.

[Dustyloup · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept is really cool. Text in blue for one reader, in black for the other. I heartily enjoyed the poems and illustrations, perhaps a little out of date but still a good numbermade me chuckle and would be fun to share with a child.
another reviewer said it reminded her of shel Silverstein and I'd add Neil Gaiman's poems / especially for the dark humor and illustrations.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly can’t believe this was one of the books authors favorites. As far as I was concerned it was awful! I was almost bored to tears. There were only five I actually liked. I really liked What Night Would It Be? I really enjoyed the rhyme scheme and there were more pictures that were actually quite good. It was about Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. I also liked the poem called My Horse, Jack. The pictures were cool and the rhymes were pretty fun. It also had an interesting story. I really liked the last stanza of What Do You Think His Daddy Did? It reminded me of all of the times I did things I shouldn’t and got my but beat for it. Oh the fond memories!

….I am her in my room and I can’t forget
What Daddy said. Not a word of it.
Forget? My goodness no! Not yet.
So far I still can’t sit.

I also really What Did You Learn At The Zoo which was fun and entertaining and I could definitely relate to this poem. Other than those few poems, overall this poem book was very disappointing with boring pictures and repetitive poems.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern poets tend to have trouble with rhyme and verse. Ciardi does better than most, though at times things strain a bit. Overall, though, this is a fun collection of poems for children, written at slightly different levels. The gimmick here is that some poems are intended to be read aloud to the child by an adult, others to be read aloud by the child. Thi leads to some interesting negotiations between how kids and adults see the world, whihc gives the book a bit of heft, albeit subtly. All the poems come with typically delightful illustrations by Gorey, though these are on balance lighter than typical for him--in tone, I mean, though the one of the poor kid who decides to try to see how many rows of teeth sharks have is nicely visceral. A few of these are actually quite good poems, many are amusing. Artefacts of the time at which they are written are evident on occasion (e.g. the one about what a disaster it is when daddy tries to cook). Slight, but entertaining.

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Read to me I’ll Read to You is a great story for a parent and child to read together. I love that the adult could read one, then the child, and keep repeating so not only is the parent just reading, but the child is also very involved as well. It is written so that very young readers are able to understand and read along as well as someone who’s a higher reader, even an older sibling. The illustrations fit what’s being said exactly, my favorite being mummy slept late and daddy fixed breakfast, since that happened at my house on the weekends when I was younger. It’s a very cute book but I wouldn’t use it in a classroom unless I was having one-on-one time with a child, but as a parent I would love to use this book.

[Lacey Bolen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book says in an intro that it is made for parents and children to read together and that it is written in first grade vocabulary with some more challenging words here and there. However, I think it could also be used in the classroom (maybe second or third grade) and have students in pairs and read their poem to one another. Then, as partners they could identify poetry components such as rhyming, rhythm, and figurative language and share with the class. Although, the language is said to be first grade, I feel a little older would be better because they would be working with eachother rather than individually with an adult and be able to focus more on the characteristics of poetry.
The poems are funny and would be great for keeping poetry lessons entertaining for young children.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I shine for the owl. I shine for the bat.
I shine for the fox. I shine for the cat.
I shine for the rabbits that dance in the dew.
What makes you think I should shine for you?

I shine for the sea, I shine for the land.
I shine for the frogs when they strike up the band
As they sit in the water all in a line.
Now you tell me-for whom do you shine?

I shine when the night-things come out of their den.
I shine for the fire-flies. I shine then
For the dog in the yard and the mice in the hall.
When do you shine-If you shine at all?"

[Maddy Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Poetry
Date: 12-1
Grade Range: 2-4

This book was a rather unique poetry book. It was designed to be read with someone else in a call and response type format. I thought it was a clever way to encourage parents or team reading amongst students. I enjoyed the witty poems in this book and the fact that the images appeared to be drawn by pen and detailed the poem so you could get an idea about what it was going to be about before you even started reading.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

With drawings by Edward Gorey! Moira likes all the poems just fine, but her favorite is "What Night Would It Be?" there is a picture of a grinning moon and some other Halloween images and the first time she saw it, she pointed to the page and said "Halloween!" before Pearl started reading. I think she must be remembering Scary Scary Halloween from the pile in October.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to listen to an LP of this; now, my child loves the poems, too. Found at the library. Gotta find a copy in print!
I used to have Ciardi's voice on LP reading these when I was about 4 in 1967...
Found at the library to share with my five year old, she likes the poems and Gorey's illustrations as much as I do; the first Gorey for both of us!

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the concept of this poetry for children book - you read to me, I'll read to you. Unfortunately I thought the majority of the poems were just ho hum at best. My favorite was:

WOULDN'T YOU?
If I
Could go
As high
As low
As the wind
As the wind
As the wind
Can blow -

I'd go!

[Taylor Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: poetry
Grade: 2-4

Poetry book full of poems written in basic vocabulary to allow children to read together with an adult. I think that although the book is intended to be for parents and children you could incorporate it into the classroom by making copies of the poems you want the read and then reading them together as a class.

[Hannah Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: poetry
Reading level: 5-6

This another typical poetry book that you see now a days. I did not enjoy reading it too much but if I was more into poetry I bet that would have enjoyed it more. This would be a great book for students to read if they were needing to be exposed to poetry. These poems would also be great to be read a loud to the class, either by the teacher or students.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

as a kid i had a really hard time reading and still do sometimes. But I have very clear memories of Dad sitting me down with this book and reading it with me. It was hard but i loved the pictures and weirdness of Gorey.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Gorey illustrations accompany Ciardi's rhymes. A bit too much spanking than should be in the modern-day kid's reality, but otherwise fairly light and lyrical and likely to entertain; and I love the read-aloud intent if not the understandable content.

[Dianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is good poetry.

[Dinah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very interesting.

[Allison Tubaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: poetry

Grades 3-5


This book is a great book full of poems. You can read them aloud and help your children work on poetry skills. You can work on rhymes, rhythm, and patterns.

[Eileen Mccann · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some delightful poems in this book. The introduction explains how to use the text. Intended as adult/child read aloud, every other poem is written for first grade readers. The length, interest level and vocabulary are appropriate for the child and the illustrations add humor and interest. Several of my favorites are, I WOULDN'T and THE WISE HEN. Some of the poems for adult reading and the child listening would surely engage the listeners. Among these are, WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT THE ZOO and A SAD SONG. Others, however, would very possibly leave the listener behind. THE JOURNEY and A SHORT CHECKLIST OF THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE BEING BORN seem contrived. All in all, the goal of the author, that of child/adult read aloud poetry is one that merits recognition by parents and teachers.. I would use this idea in a primary classroom by selecting appropriate child/adult texts.

[Chrystal Hays · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun idea, playful poetry.

For parents who get disturbed by Halloween, animals eating children in cartoony ways, or spanking as punishment, this won't work.

The book is about many more things than that, but was written in 1962. People didn't take dress up seriously. Maurice Sendak's lion could threaten to eat us up and we loved the lion. Things read to children could have complicated spelling in them, and adults knew those words or just looked them up. So, please don't buy this and then leave a bad review over that.

[Lorie LovesBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good idea to have a book a child and parent could take turns reading together, but some of the poems were outdated and I don't think a child would understand them. It also has a lot of funny words, but and some of the depictions of children were very simplistic. This was just okay.

[Boxofdelights]

Funny poems for children. Beautiful Edward Gorey illustrations.

Content note: references to spanking.

[Sarah Koz · Rating 4 out of 5]

GOREY

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book--some new fun poems. I may want to buy this book at some point.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as “The Monster Den”. My son wasn’t into it as much, so technically we DNF it.