A Song About Myself

Praise

With the Caldecott medalist Raschka’s always enjoyable watercolor art, the puckish little poem makes an effervescent picture book.
—The New York Times Book Review

Raschka injects fresh whimsy into a bit of linguistic tomfoolery from one of the poet’s letters to his younger sister…Visually boisterous, great fun to read aloud, and likely to incite some "wond’ring" along with the laughter.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Raschka fittingly dedicates this edition to his own sister, and his endpapers make connections across time and space, too: a collapsed map imagines the islands of New York City abutting those of Scotland. It’s an enchanting and intimate glimpse of the distant, anthologized Keats as a conversational letter writer who once “stood in his shoes/ And… wonder’d” at his world.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Raschka’s free-flowing watercolors pick up the nursery-rhyme folksiness in the lines and also have a touch of Keats’ near-contemporary Edward Lear in their joyful absurdity. If you’re looking to cunningly thread some canonical poetry into a collection or seeking to springboard a comparison between verse then and now, this will fill the bill.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Students can write their own playful poems about themselves, rhyming or not, after reading this delightful picture book. A lovely introduction to this romantic poet that will please readers of any age.
—School Library Journal

Raschka’s exuberant pictures and Keats’s playful nonsense poem make an irresist- ible combination from the very first page…An appended illustrator’s note details the origins of the Keats ditty, written (as part of a letter to his sister) almost two hundred years ago—and now revisioned as a joyful nonsensical experi- ence for young listeners and readers.
—The Horn Book

Caldecott Medal and Honor winner Chris Raschka brings a playful poem by John Keats to life with his vibrant watercolor paintings.
—Literacy Daily