Peacock and Other Poems by Valerie Worth with Illustrations by Natalie Babbitt

Peacock and Other Poems by Valerie Worth, with illustrations by Natalie Babbitt is a very interesting collection for young readers. She eschews the rhyme schemes and punchlines common in much of early childhood poetry as a means of introducing readers to more serious free-form poetry. In her poetry, Valerie Worth puts an emphasis on word choice carefully placed line breaks to introduce students to the concept of poetry that is lyrical and rhythmic without rhyming or having the sing-song style that they may be used to. She does this using words and subject matter that younger readers would be familiar with, and literary concepts such as metaphor and figurative language that they may just be beginning to discover.

In the above poem Umbrella, Worth characterizes an umbrella, something every child has seen and used, as a scheming, moody creature. She does this in metaphor, without coming right out and saying "an umbrella is like a bat" or "umbrellas seem like monsters sometimes", trusting young readers to see how she applies descriptive words that might be used to describe a monster in a fairytale story to the umbrella, imbuing it with magic simply through careful word choice.

Worth's poetry also makes use of unexpected descriptions of common objects to get readers to think about the world around them in ways that they might not have before. In her poem Panda, she describes a panda bear as a "Joking, fat/ Skeleton laughing" and a in Blue Jeans, she describes pair of well-worn jeans as "a homely/ Familiar/ Skin". Lines such as these lend to Worth's distinctive voice and ensure that her poetry never feels cliche or familiar. I expect that her poems would encourage young readers and writers to strive to try to find the unexpected phrases and observations that will help them discover their own distinctive creative voices as well.