Hi. My name is Delilah, and my preschooler is a poetry addict. From Shel Silverstein to Robert Frost, she’s as likely to drop a tome in my lap as to beg to watch Tangled for the fiftieth time this week. So when I tell you that she loves this book, I mean she sleeps with it under her pillow.
It’s called His Shoes Were Far Too Tight, and it’s a loving collaboration between celebrated children’s author Daniel Pinkwater, best-selling poet/artist Calef Brown, and the poetry of a much-missed, roly poly fellow named Edward Lear who believed that a little nonsense was healthy for kids.
The lush, colorful hardback includes favorite Lear poems like The Owl and the Pussycat and The Pobble Who Had No Toes, which is one of my daughter’s favorites. We’re also quite fond of The Quangle Wangle’s Hat, in part because the gorgeous illustrations make it that much more nonsensical that Bisky Bats and Blue Baboons are living on some guy’s head.
If you’re looking to jump start your budding poet or just capture your child’s imagination, His Shoes Were Far Too Tight is a delightful way to bring silliness, and a lovely sense of rhythm to your bedtime routine to those already squarely in the Shel Silverstein camp of absurdity. After spending my days explaining why stores don’t give us things for free and why everyone’s talking about a guy named Osama, it’s pure joy to answer, “Mama, what’s a Pobble?” with a pointed finger and the phrase, “That, my dear, is a Pobble.” –Delilah
His Shoes Were Far Too Tight can be found at our affiliate, Amazon. Or your local indie bookstore!
