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Winter Poems
The illustrations of a Caldecott Medalist are combined with a seasonal selection of poems by twenty-five celebrated writers including William Shakespeare, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, Richard Wright, and Edgar Allen Poe. Reprint.
40 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
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January 7, 2015I bought this for a friend who, in the midst of the We Need Diverse Books fundraising campaign in Nov/Dec 2014, complained about the lack of brown children in the picture books she was collecting for her adopted Ethioipan son. I also bought a copy for myself because Trina Schart Hyman is my favorite illustrator and this is a book I somehow missed, even when my own children were small.
Can I just say, also in light of the We Need Diverse Books awareness, what a crying shame it is that this book is out of print? The subtlety of Hyman's own many-hued family appearing mostly in the background of the pictures that go along with this simple and classical collection of winter poems is beautiful and appealing. There are no racial, sexual or religious lines drawn here (Rogasky points out that she carefully chose poems that celebrated winter without any reference to religion); the only bias is toward the Northern Hemisphere.
The illustrations are, in typical Hyman style, absolutely glorious. And I found myself getting a little tearful over this crystallized portrait of a life that is now over, knowing there will never be any more of these pictures, and that the winter scenes captured here and the love they represent has grown up, broken apart, or moved on. But I guess my reaction is based on a pile of contaminating outside knowledge that I bring to the text and has nothing to do with the reaction that my friend's small boy will bring to it, growing up in Germany as the adopted son of an American couple. Which is a happy thought.
My Scottish kids liked the poem about winter rain. :D
Can I just say, also in light of the We Need Diverse Books awareness, what a crying shame it is that this book is out of print? The subtlety of Hyman's own many-hued family appearing mostly in the background of the pictures that go along with this simple and classical collection of winter poems is beautiful and appealing. There are no racial, sexual or religious lines drawn here (Rogasky points out that she carefully chose poems that celebrated winter without any reference to religion); the only bias is toward the Northern Hemisphere.
The illustrations are, in typical Hyman style, absolutely glorious. And I found myself getting a little tearful over this crystallized portrait of a life that is now over, knowing there will never be any more of these pictures, and that the winter scenes captured here and the love they represent has grown up, broken apart, or moved on. But I guess my reaction is based on a pile of contaminating outside knowledge that I bring to the text and has nothing to do with the reaction that my friend's small boy will bring to it, growing up in Germany as the adopted son of an American couple. Which is a happy thought.
My Scottish kids liked the poem about winter rain. :D
January 7, 2022
Cute illustrations. Nice selection of poems.
January 31, 2025
A mandatory January read for my kids and I. Rich poetry and stunning illustrations.
2024: Second Hyman-illustrated book of the year! Maybe I can keep this up!
2025: lovely poetry to start the year with!
2024: Second Hyman-illustrated book of the year! Maybe I can keep this up!
2025: lovely poetry to start the year with!
February 2, 2022
Morning Time read. A beautiful collection of poems with lovely illustrations by one of my favorite artists.
February 17, 2013
This poem would be great to read to students at the start of winter. I liked this book because each poem in it was by a different poet. Barbara Rogasky selected winter themed poems from some of the best poets and collaborated them into one book. This makes the book more unique and gives it character since each poem is by someone else. The styles are all different and you have no idea what kind of poem you will read next.
My favorite part about this book, however, was not reading the poems but looking at the illustrations. The illustrations were eye catching and so detailed, it took a little while to look at them and take everything in. The illustrator interpreted the poems in their own way and then drew what they pictured in their head. The illustrations helped me connect with the poems better because they were so real.
I would recommend this poetry book to have in the classroom not only because it has a variety of poem styles, but also because of the illustrations. A fun activity could be to read a poem to the class and have them draw what picture the poem painted in their head. Then, show the class the illustration from the book and they could compare their visions with the illustrator.
My favorite part about this book, however, was not reading the poems but looking at the illustrations. The illustrations were eye catching and so detailed, it took a little while to look at them and take everything in. The illustrator interpreted the poems in their own way and then drew what they pictured in their head. The illustrations helped me connect with the poems better because they were so real.
I would recommend this poetry book to have in the classroom not only because it has a variety of poem styles, but also because of the illustrations. A fun activity could be to read a poem to the class and have them draw what picture the poem painted in their head. Then, show the class the illustration from the book and they could compare their visions with the illustrator.
February 25, 2023
5 stars for this collection of poetry, gathered for a readership of/to children, but also enjoyable (clearly) for those of us a tad bit older. Some poems make you laugh ("Skiing") and others win you over with repetition and then smack you with their complexity (Poe's "The Bells"). Some illustrations help clarify mysteries from years past (Shakespeare's 'greasy Joan' of his "A Merry Note") and others pair perfectly with verse that makes me shiver with imagining the crispness of the season ("Something Told the Wild Geese").
I think this anthology was recommended by another recent read, though I cannot recall its name or author at this moment. But YES, thank you, to whomever suggested this one. Perfect in both verse and artwork.
I think this anthology was recommended by another recent read, though I cannot recall its name or author at this moment. But YES, thank you, to whomever suggested this one. Perfect in both verse and artwork.
March 22, 2016
I really liked this: an illustrated collection of poetry from all different poets from all different eras. Some I liked more than others, of course, but they all captured something about winter. I also loved how the background picture was if the same little road and trees at different times of day or season. I'd love to reread this every winter, especially to kids one day.
December 5, 2019
Lovely winter poems, each with their own illustration. A great first poetry book for children to fall in love with.
December 17, 2025
A wonderful whimsical collection of wintry poems.
Owen’s Review: 5/5 bananas - makes me want to see actual snow this winter, which Dad tells me isn’t a common occurrence. Texas needs to get on board with snow.
Owen’s Review: 5/5 bananas - makes me want to see actual snow this winter, which Dad tells me isn’t a common occurrence. Texas needs to get on board with snow.
December 8, 2009
This book is a simple gathering, a collection of poems with a common theme. Winter is indeed a wild season, full of false turns and mistaken hopes. It is a time of despair and beauty. Rogasky manages to capture all of this in her selection, from the sweetened drama of Edna St. Vincent Millay to the wistful wonder of Sara Teasdale. From the familiar lyricism of William Wordsworth to the clean syntax of Japanese Haiku. If it is not all here, there is certainly very much of it; the modern and the classical, the cold and the warm. It makes an excellent introduction to winter, seen through the eyes of others, when we are meeting once again for the very first time. It is not a christmas book, exactly, for it covers the whole expanse of the season, from the "dark days of December" to the promising dawn of spring, but this very fact makes it most inviting. One of the poems here enclosed is from a longer piece called "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird". There are indeed many more ways of looking at winter, and this collection represents them all honorably, while keeping the reader in a state of happy engagement. Don your boots and set out for a sleigh ride; the season has arrived.
September 22, 2016
* Book Summary
This book contains a series of winter poems by many different Authors
* Awards
None
* Grade Level/ Interest level
3rd-5th Grade
* Appropriate Classroom Use
Poetry Unit
*Student Who Might Benefit From Reading
Students who enjoy reading poems
* Small Group Use
I would ask each group to select a poem share how did that poem make them feel and why.
* Whole Class Use
I would use this book when introducing different seasons or poetry.
*Related Book In Genre
Robert Frost
*Multimedia Connections
N/A
This book contains a series of winter poems by many different Authors
* Awards
None
* Grade Level/ Interest level
3rd-5th Grade
* Appropriate Classroom Use
Poetry Unit
*Student Who Might Benefit From Reading
Students who enjoy reading poems
* Small Group Use
I would ask each group to select a poem share how did that poem make them feel and why.
* Whole Class Use
I would use this book when introducing different seasons or poetry.
*Related Book In Genre
Robert Frost
*Multimedia Connections
N/A
July 18, 2022
Time to let go of the works that I've collected with Hyman's art. I just cannot see the details anymore. But I really do like and recommend this collection. It does not make me appreciate winter, but I am grateful for a collection that does not include references to any of the winter holidays.
January 30, 2025
Very cozy when it's winter.
2025: when it's snowing you have to read this book.
2025: when it's snowing you have to read this book.
December 8, 2024
3.5. Another shared read with my husband
July 6, 2022
Winter PoemsBarbara Rogasky
Why was a children’s poetry collection called Winter Poems laying out in the library, just prior to Memorial Day? Probably so I would find it. Author Barbara Rogasky selected only poems about winter — nothing about Christmas or Hanukkah or even New Year’s Eve. She includes an anonymous Japanese poem, circa 905, as well as selections by Richard Wright, Sara Teasdale, and William Shakespeare, all united by illustrations of the home and land and critters where Rogasky and illustrator Trina Schart Hyman live. The first illustration is of late fall and feels dark and cold, even without snow, while the last one, set in early spring, feels bright and thawing. The first shows Hyman walking the dogs toward home, ready to nest for winter, and in the second one she and the dogs are walking out into the wide world.
Why was a children’s poetry collection called Winter Poems laying out in the library, just prior to Memorial Day? Probably so I would find it. Author Barbara Rogasky selected only poems about winter — nothing about Christmas or Hanukkah or even New Year’s Eve. She includes an anonymous Japanese poem, circa 905, as well as selections by Richard Wright, Sara Teasdale, and William Shakespeare, all united by illustrations of the home and land and critters where Rogasky and illustrator Trina Schart Hyman live. The first illustration is of late fall and feels dark and cold, even without snow, while the last one, set in early spring, feels bright and thawing. The first shows Hyman walking the dogs toward home, ready to nest for winter, and in the second one she and the dogs are walking out into the wide world.
December 29, 2017
My family reads this collection of winter-themed poems aloud every year, several a night, usually starting around the winter solstice. Some I already knew and loved ( excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells" and Wallace Steven "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird") while over the years many others have become favorites of mine ("Something Told the Wild Geese" by Rachel Field, "I Heard a Bird Sing" by Oliver Herford, "The Germ," by Ogden Nash, "Cat on a Night of Snow" by Elizabeth Coatsworth, and "Night" by Sara Teasdale.) The illustrations are beautiful paintings with lively details. The artist used members of her own biracial family and their pets as models. Because of the illustrations and the fact that most of the poems are accessible (and the fact that it was published by Scholastic), this could be considered a children's book, but I don't really think of it that way. It's not a book you outgrow, unless you can outgrow Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson or a love of nature and its cycles.
November 27, 2020
The poems from famous authors with the heart felt illustrations for children makes this book a favorite pick for reading to children. I picked it for my grandchildren to read over the holidays. It is very inspiring, sweet and full of lessons about Winter. I liked this poem by Emily Dickinson:
An Awful Tempest
An awful tempest mashed the air
The clouds were gaunt, and few;
A black, as of a spectre's cloak,
Hide heaven and earth from view.
The creatures chuckled on the roofs
And whistled in the air,
And shook their fists, and gnashed their teeth,
And swung their frenzied hair.
The morning lit, the birds arose;
The monster's faded eyes
Turned slowly to his native coast-
And peace, was paradise.
An Awful Tempest
An awful tempest mashed the air
The clouds were gaunt, and few;
A black, as of a spectre's cloak,
Hide heaven and earth from view.
The creatures chuckled on the roofs
And whistled in the air,
And shook their fists, and gnashed their teeth,
And swung their frenzied hair.
The morning lit, the birds arose;
The monster's faded eyes
Turned slowly to his native coast-
And peace, was paradise.
February 25, 2023
A million stars for the art. I've always loved Hyman's picture books, each one is an absolute masterpiece. This book is particularly lovely, since the locations and people in the pictures are Hyman's home and family. Hyman and Rogasky lived together in a farmhouse in New Hampshire with a cat and two dogs and some sheep, and Hyman's daughter and grandson. Be sure to read the author's note on the first page!
I was a little disappointed in the selection of poems, though. Some of them are wonderful, some are long favorites of mine, but about a third of them did nothing for me and I can't imagine they'd appeal to children.
I was a little disappointed in the selection of poems, though. Some of them are wonderful, some are long favorites of mine, but about a third of them did nothing for me and I can't imagine they'd appeal to children.
March 19, 2019
Winter Poems
Genre: Poetry: Collection of Poetry
Awards: n/a
Audience: 7-10 years
A. Winter Poems is a book filled with a collection of different styles and forms of poetry all focused around winter time.
B. The sensory imagery that each poem alludes to and describes captivates the feeling and essence of winter for the reader to sense and feel as they read through this collection of poems.
C. Develop a theme for a collection of poetry you would like to compile. - I would like to see a collection of poetry surrounding the theme of football.
Genre: Poetry: Collection of Poetry
Awards: n/a
Audience: 7-10 years
A. Winter Poems is a book filled with a collection of different styles and forms of poetry all focused around winter time.
B. The sensory imagery that each poem alludes to and describes captivates the feeling and essence of winter for the reader to sense and feel as they read through this collection of poems.
C. Develop a theme for a collection of poetry you would like to compile. - I would like to see a collection of poetry surrounding the theme of football.
June 15, 2020
Children's literature illustrated poetry
K-3
This beautiful book includes poems or excerpts of poems from the great poets: Shakespeare, Dickinson, Sandberg, and Frost, to name a few. But then there's an Ogden Nash for giggles. I loved the illustrations that accompanied the poetry, and I appreciated that the poetic form (as in how it was put on the page) was kept when applicable. This is a book I would like to have in my classroom and use as a read aloud in the winter, for a poetry unit, and as a mentor text in writing poetry if I was teaching older students.
K-3
This beautiful book includes poems or excerpts of poems from the great poets: Shakespeare, Dickinson, Sandberg, and Frost, to name a few. But then there's an Ogden Nash for giggles. I loved the illustrations that accompanied the poetry, and I appreciated that the poetic form (as in how it was put on the page) was kept when applicable. This is a book I would like to have in my classroom and use as a read aloud in the winter, for a poetry unit, and as a mentor text in writing poetry if I was teaching older students.
January 30, 2019
(Poetry) Although I could see this book being overlooked by having a dull cover, it has a lot of great material inside. I like that this book actually has 25 poems in it. Whereas most poem books only provide one whole poem. This gives readers the chance to experience many different poems and types of literacy. The illustrations also bring out a lot about the poems. I think this would be great for older elementary to read, or it could also be read to younger elementary.
January 16, 2022
This is a beautiful compilation of poetry perfect for curling up with on chilly winter days, when the sun sparkles on the snow...or while cozied up inside listening to a howling blizzard outdoors...or on a night when the moon casts bright shadows over the glistening landscape. Featuring a wide array of poets, and lovely illustrations, "Winter Poems" is a new favorite which I look forward to revisiting and enjoying with my kids for many winters to come. ❄
January 2, 2023
I appreciate that it's a collection of poems that specifically don't reference any winter holidays or religions, because that brings a sort of pure seasonal joy to the theme, but I honestly disliked the majority of the poems selected. Some were absolutely fantastic to read and I was happy to be introduced to them, but so many of them were boring, overly complicated, or directionless. Like most anthologies, it's a mixed bag.
May 3, 2019
Awesome poetry book for kids that included many well known poets. The illustrations are creative and really bring to life the poets words. My favorite poem from this collection is A Patch of Old Snow by Robert Frost. I love winter and snow. Reading this poem reminded me of my childhood in upstate New York :)
May 25, 2020
This collection of winter poems create pictures in your mind that everyone can relate to. Each poem is different, yet they go together to create a reference for invoking a feeling. K-sixth grade will enjoy reading this book and discovering their favorite poem. The illustrations are stunning as well!
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October 14, 2020Hate winter?? Try reading this wonderful compilation of poems. "Journey through a frosty wonderland, where the beauty of winter and the music of poetry come together to evoke the magic of a season." And don't bypass the "About this book" forward by Rogasky. If she can't make you see some beauty in winter, with help from the lovely illustrations of Trina Schart Hyman, nobody can :)
May 11, 2022
I really enjoyed this poetry book about winter. Appropriate, I think for young children, yet quite a collection of poets are collected here ... Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Ogden Nash, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, and many poets I did not know, including a poem from 905 AD Japan!
And the illustrations are marvelous.
And the illustrations are marvelous.
December 25, 2017
This 40 page poetry compilation of a wide variety of poets celebrates the joy and beauty of winter without any religious references, which makes this collection of poems unique. The illustrations provide a visual effect to the images.
January 20, 2021
This is a wonderful collection of varied poems about winter from a broad selection of poets. I've been using it for years with my kids and recently enjoyed using it with a class of 4th and 5th graders. The illustrations are wonderful. This makes for great winter reading.
March 9, 2022
A very slim volume, 25 poems in all. A lovely introduction explains why the editor loves both poems and winter (and thus explains why she chose such a specific theme). I enjoyed most of the selections that were included, and look forward to sharing them with my mom next winter.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews