Things to Do
Things to Do is a visual and verbal feast, with the stirring poetry of Elaine Magliaro matched by the stunning pastel shades of Catia Chien. In her extended poem, Magliaro reflects on what it would feel like to be the parts of the everyday world all around us – the dawn, birds, a honeybee, an acorn etc. The language employed is rich and carries real depth, giving young readers a sense of the
wonder of the world all around them and the limitless nature of imagination.
At the heart of Things to Do is a childlike preoccupation with those ‘ordinary’ things which can so easily pass us by. Acorns are celebrated for their ‘bumpy round cap, and starched brown coat’ which eventually gives way to the growth of a mighty oak, and a spider’s web is described as a ‘woven dinner plate’. Even the contents of a child’s pencil case come in for poetic treatment, with scissors depicted with their ‘silver jaws’ and an eraser wearing itself out doing the job of getting rid of mistakes. Children of all ages will love this book. Little ones will revel in hearing its tones and texture, while older children will find as much joy in the rich language employed as in the everyday world described. Teachers will also find this to be an excellent resource to use with older children as a means of demonstrating the capacity of language to capture our world. Highly recommended, this is a book which makes our world live through poetry, and poetry live in our world.
