2.5 Stars. I feel like this was a wonderful idea- the book takes phrases and lines from wonderful poets and assembles them together to form a new cohesive poem about Spring. It's a really great way for kids to get into poetry. The proceeds of this book are also going to numerous charities which makes the book even better in my eyes.

I loved the illustrations, they were colourful and cute. They really brought the book up in my opinion. As for the actual poem itself, I thought it could have been better. I felt like some of it flowed very well while other bits of it were sort of choppy and felt discombobulated to me.

I'm rounding this up to 3 stars because of the illustrations, the idea, the fact that the proceeds go to charity and because I feel like kids will like it. I would recommend this to people who plan on reading it to children and I would read more by Vanita Oelschlager & Kristin Blackwood.

* I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Lovel,attractive illustrations. A must read for children of this generation. I really enjoyed it.

It didn't flow well but an interesting premise with beautiful illustrations.

Beautiful book with amazing illustrations. I loved Ivy. Super!

This book is cool. I like how various poets are brought together to tell this story. The illustrations are gorgeous.

I love love love this book! It's so simple and yet profound at the same time: Introduce children to great poetry and great writers through Ivy's thoughts. Ivy is a little girl deep in the throes of winter blues, longing plaintively for spring. The sepia-like illustrations through this part of the book bring the children along and draw the same longing from their thoughts, even though Ivy is doing fun winter things like sledding and throwing snowballs. Finally, a glimpse of something green growing! With each passing page, more color bursts forth and Ivy's smile gets wider and wider.

The text of the book is taken from individual lines from various poems but doesn't clutter the text of the book (meant for younger children) with the long, perhaps difficult passages from which these lines are taken. Bonus: there is an illustrated bibliography at the end, with the various borrowed texts highlighted in green presented along with a thumbnail of the page on which the text appears. This enables the child to either read the book independently and enjoy it fully as well as enabling a parent or teacher to introduce the child to greater works. I love this method!

I gratefully received this book as an eARC from the authors, publisher, and NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.

I find this poetry book absolutely wonderful and delightful. Such a brilliant way to introduce poetry to a young audience preferably Children. I certainly could read this to my children over and over. The fact that original poems are combined with those of well-known poets makes it all the more exciting to read. Poetry is a great way to reflect your inner emotions including your thoughts and feelings. By children reading this they can also learn and gain examples of poetry and how they could very well indeed write their own masterpieces.
As a parent, I one hundred percent believe that Children of all ages need a way to vent, a creative way to get their thoughts and feelings off of their chest and a platform to share it with the world. We need to encourage our kids to read more literature, to be more in touch with themselves and to understand that it's a positive thing to be able to talk about important matters or serious issues affecting them.
Poetry enables the author/poet to openly communicate with the community and I find that when I read the poetry of other people, I can oftentimes connect and relate as at some point in my life I have been in the same similar situations, experienced similar emotions or had similar thoughts on matters, thoughts that I completely understand and get.
I would recommend this children's poetry book to my friends, family and their children. I certainly give this a 10/10. A wonderful book by a gifted author.

Ivy in Bloom is about Ivy (obviously), a little girl waiting for spring. I LOVE the art work( IVY is so cute!) I love classical poetry so this was a HUGE hit for me!

What a clever and gorgeous way to use old poetry to create new poetry. Absolutely loved it! And the illustrations were absolutely gorgeous!

When wandering through NetGalley I stumbled upon a quite cute looking little book. Upon getting it I was immediately keen on reading it. As I put aside the book I was previously reading and opened Ivy in Bloom, I entered into an another world. I immensely enjoy poetry, but my preferences are very narrow, I am very hard to please. So to honest I did not think I would love or even like Ivy in Bloom.
I was wrong.

Ivy in Bloom: The Poetry of Spring from Great Poets and Writers from the Past created by Vanita Oelschlager is a great way of introducing classical poetry to children since it features lines from many poems by some of the greatest writers throughout history, such as E. E. Cummings, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Charles Dickens and many more.

But that is not all this charming book offers - pages are covered in lovely illustrations by Kristin Blackwood. They tell a story of a young girl enjoying the winter and in the end spring. The poetry and the illustrations show us very vividly her emotions and make this book even more enjoyable.

First off on a positive note, I loved the artwork! It reminded me of me as a young girl. The pictures of the little girl sledding down the mountain and skipping in the rain were well done and evocative and sweet.

However, the same can not be said for the poem. At first, it was the rapid style change that threw me. I thought this was supposed to be read as a continuous poem, but dribs and drabs of poems.

Then there is the issue of different springtime works from famous poets. Either give me all original work or all works of famous poems, but the whole concept of taking pieces of famous poems and inserting them was disconcerting to me and hard to follow. I would not want to read this to ny child because I'd feel compelled to explain who wrote what piece. Also, some of the excerpts contained words that the target audience would not understand.

All in all, not a favorite. I'd like to see more of the author's own thoughts on spring and less excerpts.

This is a cute introduction to poetry for young children, can be read alone or with parents and would be great to start a discussion on how to create poetry for the seasons in class.

At first I did not realise that the poem in the main text of the book was made up from different poems by famous poets such as A. A. Milne and William Wordsworth. It was great that at the back it showed what poems the lines were from and the writer so the children could learn more.

Oelschlager didn’t simply copy and paste a line of each poem but picked words throughout each poem to make her own sentences, this definitely added a layer of originality.

The drawings were beautiful and quirky, definitely creating the much needed visual for the story. The colours are so bright and vibrant for Spring time.

I would definitely recommend this book, particularly to introduce children to poetry.
*Received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion*