I find this poetry book absolutely wonderful and delightful. Such a brilliant way to introduce poetry to a young audience preferably Children. I certainly could read this to my children over and over. The fact that original poems are combined with those of well-known poets makes it all the more exciting to read. Poetry is a great way to reflect your inner emotions including your thoughts and feelings. By children reading this they can also learn and gain examples of poetry and how they could very well indeed write their own masterpieces.
As a parent, I one hundred percent believe that Children of all ages need a way to vent, a creative way to get their thoughts and feelings off of their chest and a platform to share it with the world. We need to encourage our kids to read more literature, to be more in touch with themselves and to understand that it's a positive thing to be able to talk about important matters or serious issues affecting them.
Poetry enables the author/poet to openly communicate with the community and I find that when I read the poetry of other people, I can oftentimes connect and relate as at some point in my life I have been in the same similar situations, experienced similar emotions or had similar thoughts on matters, thoughts that I completely understand and get.
I would recommend this children's poetry book to my friends, family and their children. I certainly give this a 10/10. A wonderful book by a gifted author.

Ivy in Bloom is about Ivy (obviously), a little girl waiting for spring. I LOVE the art work( IVY is so cute!) I love classical poetry so this was a HUGE hit for me!

What a clever and gorgeous way to use old poetry to create new poetry. Absolutely loved it! And the illustrations were absolutely gorgeous!

When wandering through NetGalley I stumbled upon a quite cute looking little book. Upon getting it I was immediately keen on reading it. As I put aside the book I was previously reading and opened Ivy in Bloom, I entered into an another world. I immensely enjoy poetry, but my preferences are very narrow, I am very hard to please. So to honest I did not think I would love or even like Ivy in Bloom.
I was wrong.

Ivy in Bloom: The Poetry of Spring from Great Poets and Writers from the Past created by Vanita Oelschlager is a great way of introducing classical poetry to children since it features lines from many poems by some of the greatest writers throughout history, such as E. E. Cummings, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Charles Dickens and many more.

But that is not all this charming book offers - pages are covered in lovely illustrations by Kristin Blackwood. They tell a story of a young girl enjoying the winter and in the end spring. The poetry and the illustrations show us very vividly her emotions and make this book even more enjoyable.

First off on a positive note, I loved the artwork! It reminded me of me as a young girl. The pictures of the little girl sledding down the mountain and skipping in the rain were well done and evocative and sweet.

However, the same can not be said for the poem. At first, it was the rapid style change that threw me. I thought this was supposed to be read as a continuous poem, but dribs and drabs of poems.

Then there is the issue of different springtime works from famous poets. Either give me all original work or all works of famous poems, but the whole concept of taking pieces of famous poems and inserting them was disconcerting to me and hard to follow. I would not want to read this to ny child because I'd feel compelled to explain who wrote what piece. Also, some of the excerpts contained words that the target audience would not understand.

All in all, not a favorite. I'd like to see more of the author's own thoughts on spring and less excerpts.