Silver Pennies

Rating:
Summary: What an Incredible Find
Review: A dear old friend gave this book (1952 ed) to me ten years ago. I was only 22 years old then and much to busy for poetry. She died a few years later. For ten years, I didn't pay it much mind. Then I had my first child and began to search among my books for poems that would be good to read at bedtime. To my delight, I rediscovered Silver Pennies. What a find! My husband and I read from it every night and our little 2 year old loves it. It's become almost a ritual at our house. I know my son doesn't understand all words, but the poems have a beauty all their own and he must appreciate it. I've read my favorites such as The Faithless Flowers, Rain in the Night, and Water Noises so many times that they're now committed to memory. I probably know at least a dozen of the poems by heart, which has been a real delight to my son when we are traveling or camping out and don't have books to read or light to read by. I just recite them to him in the dark -- he loves it and drifts off to sleep every time. My husband and I will always treasure this little book.

Rating:
Summary: Have you ever watched the fairies when the rain is done...?
Review: Although the new cover looks more like a Book Of Shadows than a book of children's poems, the actual writing still has the charm of the original. Beautiful, optimistic, sentimental...a lovely trip back to what was good in my childhood.

Rating:
Summary: Have you ever watched the fairies when the rain is done...?
Review: Although the new cover looks more like a Book Of Shadows than a book of children's poems, the actual writing still has the charm of the original. Beautiful, optimistic, sentimental...a lovely trip back to what was good in my childhood.

Rating:
Summary: Unequalled Collection of Children's Poetry for Everyone
Review: I was introduced to this marvelous collection in an old copy held by a dear friend, who grew up with it. I received my own, reprinted copy last year, and it is one of the treasures of my book collection. Ms. Thompson has selected what were modern poems for her from the under-appreciated trove of early 20th Century American literature. Her eye for poetic gems is startling, and the book holds up to dozens of readings.

Rating:
Summary: Silver Pennies
Review: My mother, who is now 82, read poems from this book to her three children in the 1950s - I still remember sitting on her lap listening to "Animal Crackers" by Christopher Morley and my all-time favorite, "The House with Nobody In It" by Joyce Kilmer. I am delighted that it has been reprinted for me to read to my grandchildren.

Rating:
Summary: An incomparable children's classic
Review: This book of children's poems has been enjoyed by three generations in our family. It captures the imagination of young children and makes a wonderful bedtime reading. I credit this book for giving me an early and continuing love of poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Found again...
Review: This book was given to me over 30 years ago by a dear friend of my parents and has been lost to me for sometime. I remembered it so well because when you removed the book cover it showed (I think!) a girl and tree (on a hill?) embossed in silver, with silver pennies falling from the sky. The goblins, and those green glass beads, "Give them me" "No." What a wonderful introduction to the gifts of poetry and imagination. I look forward to my new copy.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful World
Review: This book, a favorite in elementary school, haunted me for years...until I found a copy in a used book shop. Marvelous!
As an adult, I still return to its magic and poetry. A soothing balm for the old, cynical heart!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful World
Review: This book, a favorite in elementary school, haunted me for years...until I found a copy in a used book shop. Marvelous!
As an adult, I still return to its magic and poetry. A soothing balm for the old, cynical heart!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Contents, Terrible Package!
Review: When Silver Pennies by Blanche Jennings Thompson was first published by The MacMillan Company in 1926, this beautiful collection of poetry for children was bound in cloth imprinted with the silhouette of a small child reaching up to the heavens towards a cascade of silver stars. The current publisher who claims a 1976 copyright is aptly named Buccaneer Books, for they have pillaged much of the charm of this book. The library cover is the dullest imaginable! For the price of this reprint, surely they could have reproduced the cover which so captured my imagination and that of so many other children in years past. I would have given this book all the stars in the world, had they kept those stars on the cover!