Sky Scrape, City Scape: Poems of City Life

by Jane Yolen, Ken Condon (Illustrator)

Overview

All the jump-roping, rollerskating, skyscraping excitement of city life is packed into this pulsating collection of poems selected by Jane Yolen. Poems by Langston Hughes, Jane Yolen, Rachel Field, and others capture the rush and rumble, toss and tumble of taxis and trains, pigeons and parks, sidewalks, and street cleaners. Ken Condon's bold illustrations evoke the gritty passion of the urban scene. Young readers will delight in this irresistible anthology that crackles with energy and zest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781563971792
Publisher:	Highlights
Publication date:	06/28/1996
Edition description:	1st ed
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.88(w) x 11.31(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jane Yolen has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century. Her many awards include both the Kerlan Award and the Regina Medal for the body of her work. She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts, and St. Andrews, Scotland. janeyolen.com.

Ken Condon, whose illustrations have been published in many different magazines and corporate publications, is the illustrator of three children's books: Sky Scrape/City Scape: Poems of City Life, selected by Jane Yolen; When a City Leans Against the Sky by Allan A. De Fina; and America, My New Home by Monica Gunning. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, daughter, and two kitties.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 3-6This worthy successor to Lee Bennett Hopkins's The City Spreads Its Wings (Watts, 1970; o.p.) offers readers a glorious glimpse of New York City in particular and urban centers in general. Lively chalk-and-pastel scenesstreets, parks, crowdsappear on every page with poetry that celebrates one aspect of city life. Langston Hughes, Judith Thurman, Felice Holman, and Ann Turner are among the anthologized poets. Norma Farber's "Manhattan Lullaby" ("Lulled by rumble, babble, beep/let these little children sleep/let these city girls and boys/dream a music in their noise/hear a tune their city plucks/up from buses, up from trucks...") is a particularly memorable selection. A dynamic hymn to what Lucille Clifton refers to as "the inner city/ or/like we call it/ home."Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT

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