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Amazing Grace (25th Anniversary Edition)
written by Mary Hoffman, illustrated by Caroline Binch, with Afterwords by Floella Benjamin and LeVar Burton
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Whenever I visit Jama’s Alphabet Soup, I feel hungry - and today is no exception! She’s hosting today’s Poetry Friday with a bowl full of peaches, as well as a poem to go with them, to feed the soul!

The poem I’ve chosen today is about food too - but it’s an elephant doing the eating and I’m not sure that I would exactly want to join in with his feast… Elephants are, however, my absolute favorite animal and I can’t resist sharing this one with you today:

Little Elephant Swaying

Little elephant swaying.
Growing up breathing fresh air
And eating fresh branches.
Little elephant,
Swaying this way and that,
Eating the heart of the kia plant.

It’s a nursery rhyme from India, translated from Hindi, and is included in Floella Benjamin’s lovely anthology Skip Across the Ocean: Nursery Rhymes from Across the World, richly illustrated by Sheila Moxley (Frances Lincoln, 2007/8). The rhymes really do come from all over the world - and many of them are given in their original langauge too, which makes this a particularly intriguing book for young children, especially as, being nursery rhymes, there’s plenty of onomatopoeia to play with. The rhymes are divided into four sections: Lullabies, Action Rhymes, Nature and Lucky Dip. In her introduction, Floella says:

“Rhymes are children’s first introduction to rhythm, poetry, music and the world around them. [...] They explore feelings and help children to develop important social skills while passing on cultural values and traditions to the next generation.”

By dipping into so many different cultures, this great book broadens the horizons of young children, and gives them the opportunity to have great fun with sounds and rhythms in other languages. What a feast!