The Children's Book Review
April 2009
Read the review.

Heartland Reviews
February 2009
Reader: Bob Spear
Rating: 4 hearts

This children’s picture book’s purpose is more than just entertainment. Its pictures and connecting text lead the readers through young Ivy’s emotional changes and activities and dress as she wanders through the end of winter and through all of spring. These aspects are enough to make the book interesting; however an additional dimension is added throughout the pages by quoting several of our best loved poets from the past to kick up the quality level.

The pictures and the illustrator’s command of her various art media provide an excellent visual background that stops just short of museum quality level. She reminds me a little of “Madeline” by Ludwig Bemelmans.

The decision to use excerpts from famous poets with an explanation of each one in the book’s back material is to be applauded. Today, it is almost impossible to hear or see poetry being taught, read, or written in public schools. It has been left behind as a victim of the “No Child Left Behind” movement, which focuses on basic skills and hard science and math and little on any of the arts. This book is an excellent awareness raiser. We rated it a fairly high four hearts.

Heartland Reviews Picture Book Score Sheet
Heart score based on category scores graded 1-6 points. Total sum is divided by max possible of 30. Resultant % is equated to a heart score (see below).
Illustrations= 5
Text= 6
Connectivity= 6
Characterization= 6
Subject= 5
Total= 28 \30 = 93%= 4 Hearts

Heart Scoring Percentages  
1 heart=     < 44%        
2 hearts=     44%        
3 hearts=     60%        
4 hearts=     85%        
5 hearts=     95%

San Diego State University
National Center for the Study of Children's Literature

A. Allison

"Ivy in Bloom is a sampling, an extraction of lovely bits from famous poems, put here in a minimal way as the story of a young girl waiting for Spring. Her name is Ivy, and she and the season do bloom. Oelschlager’s selections of poetic words capture the essence of the poems, for example Wordsworth’s famous sonnet to daffodils is sculpted to “Heart dances with daffodils.” This condensation works, especially for the age of the audience. The illustrations are outstanding, original, high-tech, and complex, with an anime tone. Two of my favorites are the dynamic, cool one for “Clouds hang heavy and gray” and the multi-panel for the E.E. Cummings quote. Narrator and artist together have created a book that can introduce children to poetry playfully, positively, and meaningfully.

At the back of the book are the complete poems and short biographies of the poets/writers.”