Child Songs of Cheer

There's a particular magic in childhood, a way of seeing the world where a snow-covered hill becomes Everest and the first day of school carries the weight of true adventure. Evaleen Stein captured that magic in verses that bounce and sparkle like children at play. This collection gathers poems about picking wildflowers in summer meadows, the particular thrill of sledding down a frozen hill, the strange mixture of dread and excitement that is the first grade, and countless other small moments that somehow contained the whole universe when you were young. Stein writes with a warmth that feels like a grandmother's hand on your head: gentle, loving, never condescending. These are poems meant to be read aloud at bedtime, to be memorized in school, to become the kind of verses that stick to your ribs and return to you decades later when you pass a particular field or hear a certain bird sing. For anyone who still carries a candle for their childhood self, for parents seeking to share the simple joys of verse with the next generation, this collection opens a door back to when everything was new and bright and worth celebrating in rhyme.