MANGER (Lee Bennett Hopkins) & "Manger"

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Anastasia at Booktalking #kidlit for Roundup.

Now that it's December, I want to share the loveliness that is MANGER, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins with illus. by Helen Cann. It includes poems from several of our Poetry Friday friends, and is really a gorgeous take on the Nativity story.

When I was a little girl, there was no story I loved better than the Nativity. I was one of those girls who never ever played with Barbie dolls but loved my baby dolls well past the age when most girls outgrow them. Anything that had to do with babies, I was there. And add animals?! OF COURSE I loved it.

MANGER is a gorgeous book -- each poem spoke to me. And that doesn't often happen in an anthology! All the expected animals are included, and there are a few surprises, like a llama poem by Alma Flor Ada. A llama! Other surprises I've chosen to share with you today are "Fish" by Lee Bennett Hopkins and "Spider's Gift" by Michelle Krueger.

Fish
by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Despite
the world's
sudden glee

we cannot leave
our home -- the sea

but
we will
swish and flap
each fin

for
we, too,

welcome Jesus
in.



Spider's Gift
by Michele Krueger

All evening long
I'll spin my threads
to place upon the child's head.

I will not rest until it's done,
my humble gift to greet the Son.

I'll weave for Him
a cobweb crown,

and on eight legs

bow deeply down.

............

And now, an original poem inspired by the book! I wondered what the manger would say....