Up the Hill and Down

by William Jay Smith

Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2003

About the author

William Jay Smith was an American poet. He was appointed the nineteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1968 to 1970.

Reviews

[Hyeonjeong Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Reaction - I like this poetry book because it includes poems written for different subjects, which are mostly related to their daily lifestyle. Children would not feel bored to read the poems and because the illustrations show each poem's characteristics, it would help children understand them. Also,

Purposes-
Read aloud to kindergarteners for several potential purposes:
- As they begin to explore rhythm of poetry as well as sounds of words, this book having many repetitions would interest them. For example, the poem, Cherry Alive, repeats "I am apple, I am plum, I am tree, I am cat, I am blossom, too. Even because easy phrases are repeated, they would easily make rhythm and enjoy it.
- Depending on different subjects, children would learn specific words related to them. For instance, a poem about a dragon uses some words related to that subject including a purple dragon, a long brass tail, fiery fangs, and muscles.
- This book can convey some information to children because some poems in this book are about what to do after a bath and we should wear clothes whenever we go out.
- Also, some of poems in this book are narrative. For example, the poem "The Swing" explains feelings when you go up in a swing. It has detailed pictures.

[Auttumn C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice collection of childrens poems that range from topics of animals to sleeping. The numerous collection allow this to be a nice addition to any classroom library especially when studying poetry.