This is a book of very short poems, most of them about 4 lines long. They're like splinters -- short and sharp. The poems are written by those wellknown for their work for children like Ogden Nash, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Walter de la Mare, Jane Yolen and Carl Sandburg. But the anthology also provides a delightful introduction to the more sophisticated work of poets such as Osip Mandelstam, Emily Dickinson, ee cummings, A.E. Housman, and Ezra Pound. Thanks to the poems' brevity and Sue Heap's whimsical line drawings -- reminiscent of Stevie Smith -- these writers are rendered quite accessible to younger readers. Little Fish The tiny fish enjoy themselves in the sea. Quick little splinters of life, their little lives are fun to them in the sea. -- D.
