This is a thorough book of poetry that's divided into sections by themes like animals, family, story-telling, silliness and being alone. There were lots of our family's favorite poems included. There are some illustrations but not many and most are black and white stock art sort of things. It's always nice to have really engaging art for children's poetry books, so kids can look at the pictures while listening. It is also very heavy on older British and American writers. That said, there are lots of great poems here that will be great for read-aloud.