Let's Celebrate: Festival Poems

Published in the United Nations' International Literacy Year, this wide-ranging anthology of more than 100 poems about celebrations held throughout the world offers a welcome introduction to the customs of many different cultures. Poems about familiar American and English holidays are intermixed with poems about such events as the Corroboree festival dance performed by Australia's aborigines, Bali's festival of Nyepi and the Bun festival of Cheung Chau. The poems are arranged according to the months in which these events occur, and the illustrations--varying in both style and success--include woodcuts, pen-and-ink drawings, striking photographs and full-color paintings. Although one might wish for a more lavishly produced book, or for more information about the holidays themselves, the selection of poems in this unusual book is both diverse and felicitous. Ages 8-up. (Apr.)