Listen, Children, Listen a collection of poems selected by Myra Cohn Livingston. This book is appropriate for 1st through 3rd grade. This is a great beginner’s collection to interest children in poetry. The illustrations while there are not many they are sweet and detailed. The poem selected is Oliphant by J.R.R Tolkien author of the Hobbit and The ring trilogy. The young and old readers enjoy these writings, but Tolkien wrote them for his grandchildren.
While the reader may not recognize the title their mental image soon lets them know it is an elephant. The children could create a chart listing animals with their descriptions of what they look like that make them distinctive.