The Fun of Putting Words Together

For years, our go-to gift for new babies and young children celebrating birthdays has been Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems (1992), edited by X.J. and Dorothy Kennedy. With beautiful illustrations of classic poems by Hilaire Belloc, Edward Lear, Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, and many others, it is the ideal introduction to poetry for younger children. We went through at least two or three family copies, so often did we and our children turn its pages.