Kelly Fineman, our hardworking category organizer for Poetry this year, posts her thoughts about poetry, children's writing, and other kidlit topics on her blog, Writing and Ruminating. A poet herself, she is, of course, a regular participant in Poetry Friday.
During one of her Poetry Friday posts, she featured all kinds of books featuring bird-related poetry, including one of this year's Cybils Poetry finalists, Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures written by Julie Larios and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Though it isn't strictly about the everyday sort of birds we're all used to, it does include a striking poem about the legendary Thunderbird, as well as poems about other mythical creatures:
I highly commend this book to poetry lovers and art lovers alike, as well as folks who like folktales…as it covers mythical creatures like mermaids, dragons, centaurs, trolls, sea serpents, and hobgoblins, as well as gargoyles, the firebird, cockatrice, the sphinx, will o' the wisp, the naga and the phoenix.
Read the full review here.