Thursday 26 October 2017

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson and Michael Foreman, with foreword by Alexander McCall Smith (Otter-Barry Books)

Here's an absolutely beautiful keepsake version of a mesmerising poetry anthology for children, first published over 100 years ago.

This lovely edition has been brought bang up to date by Otter-Barry Books, with new illustrations from children's literary legend Michael Foreman and a foreword from Alexander McCall Smith, author of the fantastic "No.1 Ladies Detective Agency" series.

Stretching across many different subjects, but always with a core theme of celebrating a child's boundless imagination, and thirst for adventure and excitement, these beautiful poems have been published and republished many times, and are so well known that their titles have seeped into children's literature and popular culture in so many different ways.

There's adventure on the high seas in "My Bed is a Boat" and "Pirate Story", amazing dreamscapes in "The Land of Nod" and "Young Night-Thought" and so many other classics, that are beautiful to read aloud in Louis-Stevenson's lyrical and lilting prose.

It's a beautiful collection, truly.

"A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson and Michael Foreman is out now, published by Otter-Barry Books (Kindly supplied for review).