Brian SwannBesprekingen

An interesting collection of traditional songs and contemporary Native American poetry.

A lovely collection, with the occasional weird academic snoot - but since I'm used to that from Kipling and Yates, I'll live. The stories themselves are utterly lovely.

I didn't like the story in this book but the pictures tell their own story. I didn't get the riddles and the poems didn't rhyme and I didn't understand the meaning. But here's what I kind of got from reading this story. The pictures in the book are beautiful and show the readers about African cultures. At the end of the book it gives you possible answers to the riddles but I still don't understand them. I think you have to make up your own answers.

I enjoyed this riddle-poems book for a few different reasons. One thing I liked about this riddle-poem book was that the illustrations supported the riddle-poem and helped the reader to better understand what the poem was describing. I also like that the author provided an answer key at the end of what each poem was describing. I thought this was great because it does not leave the reader completely guessing what the author was trying to portray.

The main purpose of this book is to open the reader’s eyes to different perspectives of life through a different lens.

The House with No Door is a collection of African Riddle-Poems that illustrates different spiritual experiences in African culture. Throughout this book, Ashley Bryan illustrates the poems that Brian Swann has written giving an accurate description of what the riddle is intended to mean. These African spiritual riddles were intended to be written for a young audience, giving children a better understanding of the importance of these riddles. With the help of Bryan's beautiful illustrations, these poems are brought to life and given a meaning that they might not have been able to understand without the drawings.

I did not care for this book because I was both confusing and off-putting at the same time. The riddles or poems in this book are so vague and mysterious. I really have no idea what most of them are talking about. I think it would confuse children that have not previously been introduced to this culture, which could lead to a study to help me and children that read this book better, but not a book to read for fun.

This book is great for introducing African cultures. It is diverse in riddles and poems.
It reminded me of the Where's Waldo? books. The answers to the riddles are in the pictures.
This book can be used to discuss the Rain Forest animals.
It could also be used to introduce critical thinking.

Swann's "The House With No Door" is a book of African riddle-poems. The illustrations are made by watercolor and are very appealing to the eye these riddle poems allow the reader to see the world in a new light. This is not a book that I'd use to base lessons around, but it would be nice to have in the class library for free reading. Students would be able to figure out puzzles through reading.

I believe I would have enjoyed these more and understood the pictures painted with these words had I either grown up in the culture or spent a very long time learning it from an appropriate teacher. I can also believe that the collection would be very meaningful to a person who had done both of those things.