The illustrations were lovely and wonderfully paired with the language. I think the text selection for this book makes it a great teaching tool for younger ones who are interested in poetry or who we're trying to get interested in poetry. Ivy is wishing for spring all throughout March, finding it as April showers give way to beautiful flowers and sunshine. The best part of this title for me is the notes in the back that explain the historical poems used for each page of Ivy's story. Poetry is a complicated and often boring subject for children, but I think this approach might be the kind of tool this inspires interest as opposed to apathy.

An ARC received from NetGalley and VanitaBooks, LLC in exchange for an honest review.

Well done! The poems or words in this book are perfectly paired with amazing illustrations in this differently designed book. While this is a children’s book we all can appreciate it. Elements of great poems and writings are found throughout with entire poems/writings found at the back of the book. It is an interesting way of introducing these writings to youth. It is in story format telling a poetic journey into spring — which is beautiful and relatable when thinking of that time when snow and cold gives way to the wonderful feelings of spring. You’ll enjoy wonderful words of classic poets including A.A. Milne, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings as well as others. I did like the book as it is cute from illustrations to the idea, but I thought the idea although interesting was a bit confusing at first. Now that you know the idea you will benefit which can increase your enjoyment without the wonder of what is happening.

I apologize for this, but I have been unable to open the secured PDF. For some reason, my computer is not allowing me to view the book. As a school librarian, this looks like an amazing collection of poetry for my students, and with April being poetry month, I would have loved to share this with my students. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any feedback at this time. Thank you for understanding.

Cute book with wonderful illustrations. I really appreciated the list of poems in the back, but I would have preferred the poems be used in their entirety throughout the book. We all too often "dumb down" great literature for kids, instead of combining great literature with modern illustrations so that children get the best of both worlds.

This is a little gem! I went in without any context other than seeing the front page, so I was a little confused after a few pages, feeling that the style of poetry didn't always match what had come before, and more strangely that some lines were familiar to me. When I came to the final pages of the book, the reasons for this became clear.
The story, or poem, is made up of quotations and extracts from various poets and authors from the past, 'curated' let's say, put together and added to with the author's own words.
The illustrations are wonderful and bring the season of spring to life.
I teach primary school aged learners of English, and I am keen to use this book with them and project it on their whiteboard, and can see various uses of it.
I imagine using it to celebrate spring and start off some discussions about the changes in the world when spring arrives, as well as to introduce the students to some new vocabulary and poetry.
I would eventually like to invite them to do a similar activity of creating poetry from various sources of literature, perhaps from other seasons.

This was the perfect time of year here in Minnesota to read this book with my kids. We currently have two feet of snow in the yard, another blizzard expected tonight, and icicles that hang down 10 feet or more. We've been snowed in for weeks and more snow is expected all next week.

This sweet picture book tells the story of a little girl who is tired of winter and impatiently waiting for spring, and then of spring brightening the world. What makes it especially special is that the author uses lines of poetry from many different classic poets in her poem/story, so children hear lines of poetry from Robert Frost to Walt Whitman to A.A. Milne and e.e. cummings. (Since this is classic poetry, female poets are in short supply.) At the end of the book, the complete poems or pieces that the lines are lifted from are printed, so kids can hear them in their entirety. As an added bonus, all of the profits go to charity (especially MS charities).

The illustrations are really well done. The poem comes off a bit choppy since it's basically taking pieces from all different poems written by very different poets and authors. Hard core secular parents also might want to note that it ends on a Christian note, which is pretty standard for classic poetry.

Despite liking so much about it, the book was a little bit off for me, though. It comes across as quite disjointed. Winter goes on and on and on and then without any segue suddenly it's spring and the rest of the book reflects that. I actually checked to see if I had accidentally skipped a page, since it sort of just poof, changed from Ivy throwing snowballs at snowmen to skipping in mud. The text is also somewhat disjointed because of the very different poems it uses. Also, in some cases the poet only uses words from famous poems or really chops them up. For instance, she used this stanza from Walt Whitman:

"Give me the splendid silent sun
with all his beams full-dazzling"

and changes it to:

"Give me sunbeams dazzling"

And poor Edna St. Vince Milay's line:

"April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers"

becomes:

"April comes strewing flowers"

I think the original poets might have been quite annoyed, but it makes for a good discussion with kids after reading it. All in all, it's a sweet book that's perfect for this time of year and for introducing some classic poets.

I've never seen another book set up the way this one was but I enjoyed it so very much! The illustrations are so amazing! This would make a great book for a poetry theme in a classroom or just anyone interested in poetry! Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

Often, introducing poetry to young readers is difficult. However, poetry is an important form of writing that children should be exposed to, and Ivy in Bloom does a great job of that. The author goes through the end of winter / beginning of spring through lines from famous poets.
The story as read straight through is almost read as a poem in itself, each page just commenting on spring. A young reader may miss the lack of a storyline or structure. However, an older reader (age 6 or so) can start to appreciate the poetry.
At the end of the book, the author lists the poems she pulled lines from (highlighted in green) complete with their full text. As an adult, I appreciated this as it gave me the opportunity to show my child the full poem. I also enjoyed reading the full poem to my child so they could see what full poems by famous poets (e. e. cummings, Walt Whitmam, etc.) looked like.

I love poetry and i love childrens books. Which makes this book perfect for me!

“Ivy in Bloom” is about a young girl, Ivy, waiting for spring to come around because she is bored with the bleak winter. Her story is told in verse and not just any: most of the verses are taken from famous poets’ (such as E.E. Cumming, Emily Dickinson, A.A. Milne, etc.) poetries about spring. And the best part is, the full poems are given at the end which just gives you more to read!
On top of it all, the illustrations are gorgeous and compliments the verses well.

This book makes me want to have kids so that i can read this to them.
Highly recommend!

Ivy in Bloom is a collection of poetry that captures the essence of a young girl waiting for the end of winter. Ivy in Bloom introduces the poetry of Dickinson, Longfellow, Browning, Wordsworth, Frost and others. Excerpts from their writings, as seen through Ivy's eyes, will open up poetry as a way for children to express their own feelings about the changing of seasons. This book includes longer excerpts and brief bios of each author. This is a great starter collection of poetry for the younger crowd.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC copy.i have this a 3/5 stars.

I really enjoyed this with how cold and snowy it’s been where I live. I think if you want children to get into poetry this would be a good one to start with. They would understand and it’s about looking forward to spring, the sun, and all the bright colors.

This book was received as an ARC from VanitaBooks LLC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Having Springtime being one of our favorite seasons where our library is, it was so refreshing to see all of these adorable references to spring, melting snow and the different type of flowers such as daffodils. We also enjoyed the adorable drawings of Ivy, it reminded us of the picture book Jessica by Kevin Henkes with the similar cartoon colorful drawings presented throughout the books. Our young patrons are sure to love this.

We will consider adding this title to our JPicture Book collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This book was a bit of a disappointment. The poetry written by Oelschlager pales in comparison to the original source material. At the back of the book, the original poems are included, with the words that were incorporated into Oelschlager's poems highlighted in green. Unfortunately, many of the more evocative words were cut out (leaving behind more banal words like "sun", "heart", and even "from"); there were so many beautiful passages that could've been included in the actual book. I suspect the author was trying to keep the language simple for kids, but when I saw what was cut out versus what was included, it all seemed a bit condescending to me.

The illustrations didn't impress me. The process did... but not the final result. Everything ends up looking a bit amateurish. (I almost think it would've worked better as straight black-and-white linoleum block prints. There wouldn't have been the ramping-up of colour as the book went from winter to spring, but I think perhaps the whole thing wouldn't have looked so Photoshopped.)

If your child is truly interested in poetry, go back to the original source material, especially A. A. Milne's works (one of which is sampled from in this book). His poems in When We Were Very Young (not When We Were Young, as this book erroneously states) and Now We Are Six are lovely and whimsical, and far more interesting than the bland imitations of famous works that are presented here.

I thought that this would be an anthology of writing about Spring. But actually Vanita Oelschlager has taken snippets of poetry and poetic phrases about Spring from some famous writers and blended them with her own text into a cute, short little book nicely illustrated by Kristin Blackwood. The authors of those Spring snippets are acknowledged in a brief bibliography at the back.

I read #IvyinBloom via #Netgalley.

I expected more.
All the illustrations are very cute and I did like the original poetry of Vanita Oelschlager. But as soon as classic poetry is introduced, the text doesn't flow anymore. Probably because only one or two lines are taken out of each poem which means that the meter constantly changes and the lines don't rhyme anymore. So, although it is poetry it almost felt like strange prose. I do like that all works are included in the bibliography at the end of the book so you can read the whole poems but I would still have preferred to read at least one stanza of each poem in the main text. All in all, it was a bit of a bumpy read for me.

In a adorable fashion, we have Ivy and her poems and verses as she waits on spring to come.

Original lines mixed with other poems, this was a very simple and nice reading book. Perfect for giving it as a small gift to a child you want to see start on poems, or a friend that is waiting on spring.

Thank you Netgalley and Vanita Oelschlager for the chance of reading this eArc in exchange for a honest review!

The passages in this book of poetry present an ode to the coming of spring. Meaningful prose accompanied with cute illustrations beckoned to a child's yearning for the brighter days ahead. Soon, gone would be the cold and dark dreary days of old man winter. With hope just over the horizon, the author offered children an enticing look of wonderful times just around the corner. This book of poems would make a great pick-me-up for the child suffering with cabin fever.

I send my thanks to NetGalley and Vanitabooks, LLC for this digital edition in exchange for an unbiased review.

This children's poetry/picture book is sweet, but to me, it sounded way better than it actually turned out to be. It's a couple of original lines/verses (which I actually loved!) and many individual lines from famous poets, so that it would all look like one big poem telling a story about a girl waiting for the spring. It's such an adorable and great idea! It didn't really work for me, though. I expected a whole story built-up this way, but in fact, I found that it lacked some continuity and logic. It was simply moments dragged out from the days of a little girl longing for the end of winter. It's sweet, but it could be better.

In the end of the book there are excerpts of the poems the lines are taken from, and to be honest, I liked that part way more than the actual book. I do admit, though, that this is a very nice and creative way to introduce (very) little children to poetry.

The illustrations are beautiful, sweet and I found them to be way more attractive than the text. For those I give this book a 3 star rating. I honestly loved them, and I think those are what little kids notice the most anyway.

Illustrations were cute and colourful. Bits of poems about spring has been collectively presented here.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

What a cute illustrated book about Winter & Spring !!

It was very refreshing to read this compiled poetry from different great poets and writers from the past talking about winter and spring.

I really really love the illustrations of winter turning into spring. Wishing I had the chance to read more books like this when I was a kid cause poetries like these are really calming.

Thank you Vanita Books for allowing me to read a book of this beautiful book through NetGalley.