内容简介
Here in one gloriously illustrated volume are 211 wonderful poems that represent the best this century has to offer. From sibling rivalry, school, monsters, food, and just plain silliness, to such ageless themes as the seasons, Who am I?, and the many moods of childhood, this is a collection that begs to be read aloud and shared with the whole family. The poems, from every decade of this century, showcase 137 famous poets.
Selected by Jack Prelutsky, America's leading children's poet, and illustrated by award-winning watercolorist Meilo So, this useful and beautiful gift is a splendid way to end the century -- or start a new one. Truly a book that families will cherish long after the millennium excitement is over, The 20th-Century Children's Poetry Treasury is a joyous companion volume to the best-selling The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury.
作者简介
For 30 years,
Jack Prelutsky’s inventive poems have inspired legions of children to fall in love with poetry. His outrageously silly poems have tickled even the most stubborn funny bones, while his darker verses have spooked countless late-night readers. His award-winning books include Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast, The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, and The Beauty of the Beast
While attending a Bronx, New York, grade school, Prelutsky took piano and voice lessons and was a regular in school shows. Surprisingly, Prelutsky developed a healthy dislike for poetry due to a teacher who “left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told it was good for me, but I wasn’t convinced.”
In his early twenties, Prelutsky spent six months drawing imaginary animals in ink and watercolor. One evening, he wrote two dozen short poetry verses to accompany each drawing. A friend encouraged him to show them to an editor, who loved his poems (although not his artwork!) and urged him to keep writing. Prelutsky listened and he is still busy writing.
Jack Prelutsky lives on Mercer Island in Washington with his wife, Carolynn.
Meilo So's first collaboration with Jack Prelutsky was the ALA Notable Book
The Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom, of which
The New York Times Book Review wrote: "Meilo So does enchantingly unreal paintings: whimsical watercolors made with a wet-on-wet technique that preserves the spontaneity of her hand gestures. In very few brush strokes, she captures the essence of organisms from stallions to sea horses. Yet the images themselves are abstract, almost calligraphic pictograms." Her most recent book is
Tasty Baby Belly Buttons by Judy Sierra. Meilo So was born in Hong Kong and now lives in England with her husband, who is also an artist.
内页插图
精彩书评
Grade 1-6-This volume, described in Prelutsky's introduction as representative of the "scope and variety of children's verse produced in the twentieth century," contains 211 poems by 137 poets. Some are well known, such as Shel Silverstein, Karla Kuskin, and Prelutsky himself. Some have written mainly for adults, e.g., John Updike, Langston Hughes, and e. e. cummings. Lesser-known and more recently published poets, such as Janet Wong, Deborah Chandra, and Nikki Grimes, are included as well. The greatest number are from the United States. While all of these selections have been published elsewhere, the format and illustrations in this collection give them new life. Poems are presented in unlabeled small groups that cross each double-page spread. Some of these groupings are clearly understood from their content, such as those on the seasons or on insects. Others require readers to think about common threads or themes as they read and study the illustrations, such as the cluster of poems on ways of creating. In another grouping, Prelutsky pairs poems of bats and mice with a poem about creatures who see better at night, calling attention to their shared physical characteristics. So's watercolor illustrations are, by turn, impressionistic, childlike, silly, and serious, as called for by the tone of the poems featured. Sometimes the artist creates one unifying illustration across the spread, such as a cityscape at night that features all types of light found in the group of poems presented there. A splendid collection.
--Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
精彩书摘
"Where Are You Now?"
When the night begins to fall
And the sky begins to glow
You look up and see the tall
City of light begin to grow --
In rows and little golden squares
The lights come out. First here, then there
Behind the windowpanes as though
A million billion bees had built
Their golden hives and honeycombs
Above you in the air.
-Mary Britton Miller
穿越时光的文学回响:一部二十世纪儿童诗歌选集的故事 引言:在文字的迷宫中寻找童年的回音 本书旨在呈现二十世纪儿童诗歌的广阔图景与深远影响,它是一次对过去百年间,那些为孩子们创作的、却又超越了年龄界限的诗歌作品的系统梳理与深度解读。我们不追求建立一个单纯的“最佳”诗歌列表,而是致力于勾勒出这一文学体裁在特定历史时期内的演变脉络、主题多样性以及其对后世文学思潮产生的涟漪效应。 二十世纪,一个充满剧变、科技飞速发展与社会结构深刻重塑的时代。儿童文学,作为时代精神的敏感接收器,其诗歌创作也经历了一场深刻的革新。那些诞生于两次世界大战的阴影下、太空竞赛的狂热中、以及文化多元化浪潮中的诗篇,无一不折射出那个特定时代的复杂情绪与对未来的期盼。 本书的叙事线索将围绕几个核心轴点展开:现代主义的冲击、社会现实的介入、以及对纯真想象力的回归。 我们将细致考察那些标志性的诗人及其作品是如何挑战了维多利亚时代遗留下来的说教式、道德化的儿童诗歌传统,转而拥抱更自由的形式、更尖锐的观察和更贴近儿童真实心境的语言。 --- 第一部分:黎明前的迷雾与形式的探索(1900-1930年代) 二十世纪伊始,儿童诗歌的土壤仍带有前一个世纪的印记,但新的声音已在酝酿。这一阶段的诗歌创作,一方面是对十九世纪经典(如爱德华·利尔的无厘头和刘易斯·卡罗尔的逻辑颠覆)的继承与致敬;另一方面,则开始谨慎地探索现代主义在叙事与韵律上的可能性。 我们首先关注那些将语言的音乐性推向极致的诗人。他们如何利用新颖的节奏、重复的句式和略带异域色彩的词汇,构建出既能安抚人心又充满异想天开的内部世界?例如,在某些早期作品中,我们可以看到对“自然”的赞美,但这种赞美不再是简单的田园牧歌,而是开始融入了对工业化进程中环境变化的微妙察觉。 技术上,一些诗人开始尝试打破传统格律的束缚,虽然仍处于探索阶段,但已为后来的自由诗体奠定了基础。这一时期的诗歌常常聚焦于日常的微小奇迹——窗外的麻雀、雨滴的形状、一个被遗忘的玩具。这种对“微观世界”的专注,是抵抗外部世界宏大叙事压力的一种温柔反抗。 重点分析:在这一阶段,诗歌的插图艺术与其文本形成了强烈的互文关系。书籍设计本身成为诗歌体验不可或缺的一部分,我们探讨这些早期出版物如何通过木刻、水彩等媒介,共同构建出那个时代独有的视觉与文学的“童年美学”。 --- 第二部分:战火中的低语与社会镜鉴(1930年代-1950年代) 大萧条和两次世界大战的阴影,不可避免地投射到了儿童文学的创作中。儿童诗歌不再能完全沉浸于纯粹的幻想,它开始承担起某种社会责任,尽管这种责任通常以隐喻或幽默的方式呈现。 这一时期的许多诗歌,其主题从对世界的赞颂转向了对“不公”的微妙提及。诗人学会了如何使用双关语和夸张的手法,在不直接触碰敏感政治议题的前提下,表达对贫困、隔离或不平等待遇的关切。例如,一些诗歌通过拟人化的动物或奇特的角色,来讽刺成年人世界的荒谬逻辑。 语言的成熟:这一时期,诗歌语言的成熟度显著提高。诗人不再仅仅满足于押韵和节奏,他们开始深入挖掘词汇的“重量”——一个词语所承载的历史、情感和潜在的冲突。对讽刺(Irony)的运用,成为区分这一代优秀儿童诗歌与平庸之作的关键标准。他们教导孩子如何“阅读”隐藏在表象之下的真实含义。 此外,随着科学的进步,诗歌中开始出现关于原子、宇宙和新发明的意象,这预示着儿童文学即将迎来一场与科学革命同步的想象力爆发。 --- 第三部分:想象力的爆发与主题的拓宽(1960年代-1980年代) 六十年代的文化解放运动深刻影响了儿童诗歌。这一时期的作品,标志着儿童诗歌彻底摆脱了道德说教的枷锁,进入了一个以“解放心灵”为核心的创作黄金期。 形式的彻底自由:自由诗(Free Verse)成为主流。诗人开始大量运用打破常规的排版、跳跃的意象和非传统的句法结构,以模仿儿童思维的跳跃性、非线性和爆炸性。诗歌不再需要“告诉”读者什么是对的,而是“展示”世界是如何被感知到的。 主题的深度挖掘:儿童诗歌开始正视并探讨复杂的情感,如失落、愤怒、嫉妒和孤独。这些情感不再被视为需要隐藏或纠正的“坏情绪”,而是被接纳为成长的一部分。一些作品甚至大胆地触及了家庭结构的变化、多元文化认同的挑战,以及个体在群体中的身份构建。 声音的多元化:随着社会对不同声音的重视,来自少数族裔、不同性别认同的诗人的作品开始进入主流视野。他们的视角为儿童诗歌注入了新的色彩和主题,例如对文化遗产的骄傲,以及对刻板印象的反思。这种多元化不仅是内容上的丰富,也是语言风格上的革新,它证明了“儿童之声”并非单一的、理想化的形象,而是由无数独特的声音构成的合唱。 --- 第四部分:跨媒介的对话与后现代的回响(1980年代末-2000年) 进入世纪末,随着大众传媒和电子娱乐的兴起,儿童诗歌面临着新的挑战:如何在大众娱乐的洪流中保持其独特的文学价值? 答案在于元叙事(Meta-narrative)和对诗歌本身的戏仿。一些后现代主义倾向的诗歌作品,开始在诗句中直接讨论“写诗这件事”、“读者是谁”或者“韵律的陷阱”。这种自我指涉(Self-Referentiality)不仅为诗歌增添了智趣,也挑战了传统文学的严肃性。 节奏的回归与更新:虽然自由诗盛行,但我们同时也观察到一股对节奏和押韵的“有意识的回归”。这些回归并非简单的复古,而是融合了嘻哈文化、说唱音乐中的强劲节奏感与传统诗歌的精炼,创造出一种既现代又具有强烈口头表演性的新体裁。 信息与情感的平衡:在信息爆炸的时代,优秀的儿童诗歌学会了如何在不牺牲艺术性的前提下,巧妙地嵌入对环境、科技伦理的思考。这些诗歌如同精巧的“信息胶囊”,将复杂的观念包裹在引人入胜的意象和节奏之中。 --- 结论:永恒的对话 二十世纪的儿童诗歌是一部不断自我更新的史诗。它见证了社会变迁如何转化为语言的创新,也展示了诗人如何坚守对儿童心灵深处那份原始好奇心和真诚的承诺。本书通过对这些作品的深入考察,希望揭示一个核心观点:优秀的儿童诗歌,从来不是对成人世界的简化,而是对成人世界进行复杂重塑和审视的独特途径。 它们是历史的回声,是语言的游乐场,更是我们理解一代人如何成长、如何梦想的珍贵档案。