By Robert Louis Stevenson (author) , Eve Garnett (illustrator)
Paperback In Stock £12.99 £11.69
Hardback In Stock £15.99 £14.39
Paperback In Stock £7.99 £7.19
View All Editions (9)
Along with Lavender's Blue by Kathleen Lines, this book is one of July 2011 Guest Editor Anne Fine 's choices:
"Everyone talks about how hard it is to introduce poetry to children, but that’s nonsense. Just start here. They’re rich and colourful, with rhythms that make them easy to read and fix in the brain. And since they mirror so many of a child’s everyday experiences, they catch their attention at once."
First published in 1885, A Child's Garden of Verses has delighted generations of children and adults. The complete collection of these favourite and familiar poems is here, from Bed in Summer, The Swing and The Land of Counterpane to The Lamplighter, My Shadow and Escape at Bedtime. They capture the imaginative, transformative aspects of childhood with a unique freshness and innocence.
Read the full description
As Alexander McCall Smith says in his inspirational foreword, "Childhood is very brief. While the garden is still there, it should perhaps be visited." This beautiful edition, with delicate and atmospheric watercolours by Kate Greenaway Medallist, Michael Foreman, will enchant a whole new generation of readers.
Robert Louis Stevenson was born to Thomas and Margaret Isabella Balfour Stevenson in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850. From the beginning he was sickly. Through much of his childhood he was attended by his faithful nurse, Alison Cunningham, known as Cummy in the family circle. She told him morbid stories about the Covenanters (the Scots Presbyterian martyrs), read aloud to him Victorian penny-serial novels, Bible stories, and the Psalms, and drilled the catechism into him, all with his parents' approval. Thomas Stevenson was quite a storyteller himself, and his wife doted on their only child, sitting in admiration while her precocious son expounded on religious dogma. Stevenson inevitably reacted to the morbidity of his religious education and to the stiffness of his family's middle-class values, but that rebellion would come only after he entered Edinburgh University.
The juvenilia that survives from his childhood shows an observer who was already sensitive to religious issues and Scottish history. Not surprisingly, the boy who listened to Cummy's religious tales first tried his hand at retelling Bible stories: "A History of Moses" was followed by "The Book of Joseph." When Stevenson was sixteen his family published a pamphlet he had written entitled The Pentland Rising, a recounting of the murder of Nonconformist Scots Presbyterians who rebelled against their royalist persecutors.
the best books for 7-9 year olds
Under the Olive Moon
Ma Isabel Sánchez Vegara and 1 more
Hans Christian Andersen and 1 more
Stories for South Asian Supergirls
Tales from Moominvalley
10 Ten-Minute Stories
First published in 1885, A Child's Garden of Verses has delighted generations of children and adults. The complete collection of these favourite and familiar poems is here, from Bed in Summer, The Swing and The Land of Counterpane to The Lamplighter, My Shadow and Escape at Bedtime.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed A Child's Garden of Verses and determined it is suitable for children aged 5-8 years old
A Child's Garden of Verses features in the following genres: Featured Books for 7+ readers, Recommendations, Anthologies, Children’s / Teenage poetry, anthologies, annuals, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Recommended Children's eBooks, Featured Books for 5+ readers
Paperback, Hardback. £11.69, down from the £12.99 cover price. In Stock.
A Child's Garden of Verses was written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published by Otter-Barry Books an imprint of Otter-Barry Books Limited
A Child's Garden of Verses has 124 pages
£11.69, reduced from £12.99. In Stock.
©PTC International Ltd T/A LoveReading is registered in England. Company number: 10193437. VAT number: 270 4538 09. Registered address: 157 Shooters Hill, London, SE18 3HP. Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer
The National Year of Reading starts here. Join thousands of families and schools supporting reading for pleasure across the UK.