Young Adult Books Central
Rita Lorraine Hubbard

June, 2010

Do you love summer, and do you hate when it's over? So does young Ivan, and he explains all the reasons why in, Ivan's Great Fall: Poetry for Summer and Autumn from Great Poets and Writers of the Past, by Vanita Oelschlager.

Ivan's Great Fall, is a creative children's poetry book about a young boy struggling to let go of a warm and carefree summer so he can embrace the leafy fall. Its pages serve a dual function; they introduce children to the poetry greats like Dickinson, Keats, Bronte and Sandburg, and they help children accept the changing of the seasons and the inevitable passage of time.

Author Vanita Oelschlager keeps the sentences short and child-friendly, and illustrator Kristin Blackwood uses deep, rich colors to lend the book an enthusiastic feel.

Oelschlager is Writer-in-Residence for the Literacy Program at the University of Akron. She has written several other books, including the widely acclaimed, My Grampy Can't Walk, the story of her wheelchair-bound husband Jim, and his relationship with his grandchildren.

For a great introduction to poetry and change, be sure to pick up a copy of Ivan's Great Fall.