How has language changed through time? How have human lives changed, as we've greeted new inventions and deemed others obsolete? And how could those concepts be shown in a picture book poetry collection?
Only Paul Janeczko would tackle such a project so successfully! For The Death of the Hat, Janeczko chose 50 poems from the Early Middle Ages to the present. His introduction briefly explains society and language in each time period, which makes this book a great companion to history and language classes. You'll find some favorites here, as well as poems you may never have seen before. For more on how and why Janeczko chose these poems, see this interview from Kirkus.
Thanks to Chris Raschka's artwork, even the old favorites feel new, as he puts his fresh interpretation on the pages.
Though published and cataloged in libraries as a book for children, all ages will find this book a delight.
Janeczko tells us in the introduction that he has more than 1,500 poetry books, which makes me feel not so odd, after all. I have a lot, but not that many! Here are some of mine. Do you recognize any? What do your poetry shelves look like?
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