The Macmillan Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Poems

Open any page of this substantial volume and delight sings out: it sings from the circle of small children on the title page and resonates through Roger McGough's introductory words and through every one of the eighteen thematic sections. Despite the book's size it is not dense. Each poem has room to breathe on the page and Currey's watercolour illustrations provide a harmonious accompaniment which never overwhelms the verbal images. The poems selected - from Stevenson to Silverstein - are all highly accessible to a young audience. What is lacking in so substantial a collection, however, is a handful of poems which really challenge, so that young readers can be part of, to borrow Richard Lewis's words, 'the circle in which all ends meet ... no longer ends but beginnings of a whole - no longer beginnings but what is continuous' ie the lifelong joy with which poetry abounds. That said this is still a very desirable collection to own and to share.