A Child's Calendar by John Updike, Trina Schart Hyman (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

From the short, frozen days of January, through the long green days of June, to the first light snowflakes of December, here are poems for all twelve months of the year. Each celebrates the familiar but nonetheless wondrous qualities that make a time of the year unique. Vibrant paintings follow the members of a busy, contented family and their friends through the seasons, capturing their affection for one another along with the snowy quiet of winter, the newness of spring, the still heat of summer, and the crispness of autumn.

Sesame Street Parents

A Child's Calendaris a great way to introduce your child to the rewards of reading poetry.

Mailbox Bookbag

Thus begins this revised and strikingly reillustrated book, first published in 1965. Updike's graphic text is a mental feast for young and old. Hyman's illustrations, homey and rich, follow one family and its pets through the seasons. New details catch the eye with every read. Be it words or pictures, each student will relate to at least something in this handsome offering.

Publishers Weekly

letter day for poetry lovers. Each month receives its due in shiveringly lovely verse while Hyman's brightly populated watercolors trace the corresponding activities of a lively Vermont family. The interplay of text and art has both depth and beauty. The language and illustrations are not merely pretty or ornamentally descriptive, but vibrantly alive--enough to keep young readers occupied through more than one reading. Crisp images from the poems are amplified or buried like treasures in the artwork. In March, "Pale crocuses/ Poke through the ground/ Like noses come/ To sniff around," while the family is pictured tending the sheep that likewise burrow their noses into waiting hands. Familiar things are made new with the grace and freshness of Updike's simple and accessible imagery. In June, for example, "The live-long light/ Is like a dream,/ And freckles come/ Like flies to cream." A breathtaking book that will unfold the world to new readers: "each flower, leaf,/ And blade of turf--/ Small love-notes sent/ From air to earth." Ages 4-up. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

The striking and inviting cover depicts a cloudy gray sky and a snow covered New England landscape with young children poised at the top of a hill, sled at the ready. Inside are a series of pictures showing two neighboring families throughout the months. Starting with the short and frozen days of January, moving through the golden days of June to snowy days of December, Updike's poems paint their own pictures of the year. They are simple and lyrical--the type of poems that kids can enjoy. They celebrate the ordinary, but his choice of words to create the images are anything but ordinary. In "March" to illustrate, "Pale crocuses / Poke through the ground / Like noses come / To sniff around." The illustration convey another more subtle message. The neighboring families are of different races and they are shown living in complete harmony. It is a very pleasant package of poems originally published in 1965 and reissued with slight modifications and all new art by Hyman. 1999 (orig.

Children's Literature

A poem and painting to celebrate each month is a perfect opening for this new century. A Child's Calendar reveals the daily life of Ms. Hyman's family who lives in rural New Hampshire. The snowy landscape is inviting even to this sun-loving reviewer. Updike's poems are easy to learn--"the days are short, /The sun a spark/Hung thin between /The dark and dark." The July picnic invites family and pets to join in the fun as "We celebrate/Our national/Independence date." By the time Christmas appears, the reader feels a kinship with this loving multi-cultural family.

Library Journal

Gr 1-5-A year in New England as seen through a child-focused lens. Month by month, season by season, the poet's words and the expressive paintings create images that are reflective and playful, perceptive and pleasing. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-John Updike reads each of his 12 poems celebrating everyday life month by month (Holiday House, 1999) at a deliberate, measured pace. Background music plays lightly, changing with each piece to reflect the season, month, holiday, etc. that is being presented. Appropriate sound effects such as crunching snow and geese honking add texture to the even reading. The accompanying book features colorful watercolor illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman portraying the activities of a multiracial Vermont family. The slow-paced narration has little inflection and may not hold the interest of the youngest children. This read-along is a good way to introduce poetry and teach the months of the year.-Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Updike has revised a set of 12 short poems, one per month, first published in 1965, and Hyman's busy, finely detailed scenes replace the original edition's illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. The verses are written in a child's voice—"The chickadees/Grow plump on seed/That Mother pours/Where they can feed"—and commemorate seasonal weather, flowers, food, and holidays. In the paintings a multiracial, all-ages cast does the same in comfortable, semi-rural New England surroundings, sitting at a table cutting out paper hearts, wading through reeds with a net under a frog's watchful eye, picnicking, contemplating a leafless tree outside for "November" and a decorated one inside for "December." The thoughts and language are slightly elevated but not beyond the ken of children, and the pictures enrich the poetry with specific, often amusing, incidents. (Poetry. 6-10)

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