All Around the Town by Phyllis McGinley. Illustrated by Helen Stone.

All Round Town is an alphabet book with a short city-themed poem for each letter of the alphabet. Some of the poems’ subjects are a bit outdated: “D’s the Dairy Driver” and “H is for the horses/That haul their city loads.” Nevertheless, the poems are delightful little vignettes of city life in the 1940’s. I especially liked “Q is for the Quietness/Of Sunday avenues” and “S is the snorting subway/That slithers below the ground.” As you can see, Ms. McGinley uses simple poetic devices such as alliteration and personification to draw the reader or listener into the poetry and make it memorable. This book would be a lovely introduction to poetry for preschool or kindergarten story time.

The illustrations remind me of Louis Slobodkin or Ludwig Bemelmans. It’s a style of illustration that was popular in the 40’s but isn’t so much today. Some of the drawings, like the one of the subway dragon, I liked. Others were too smudgy and indistinct for me. Some are black and and white and some color. Maybe it’s a matter of taste. The two in this post are a couple of my favorites.

Phyllis McGinley was the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 for her book Times Three. She was the first to be awarded the poetry prize for a collection of light verse. This book, published in 1948, came before the recognition and honors were bestowed. In fact, Ms. McGInley was criticized for writing “light verse” and poetry for children. Sylvia Plath said McGInley had “sold herself” and couldn’t be taken seriously as a poet. Other writers and feminist of the time also heckled. But McGinley remained a committed Catholic Christian and homemaker and poet all her life.