Firefly July, by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Melissa Sweet

  Firefly July is a collection of poetry which features works selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrations created by Melissa Sweet. The collection has poems for each season, by a variety of authors including but not limited to Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson. The collection lacks an introduction, preface, or any other kind of opening section, and only has an acknowledgements section in the back matter. The acknowledgements section is simply a list of citations for each poem and author, with no other information given. According to the front inside flap, the purpose of this work is to give children the chance to listen to or read very short poetry which they might otherwise not come across. The front inside flap also says that poetry can “make the world glow” for children and readers of all ages. However, this is the only indication of a purpose in the book. While the very short poetry is sure to hold a young child’s attention for the time span it takes to read, it seems somewhat unfortunate that there is no context within the pages of this book to further illuminate what this collection is for. 

As for the scope, there are thirty six works of poetry in this collection, each by a different author. Some of these are by authors who are quite well known, while I had never heard of some of the other authors. That being said, the only commonalities between the poems are that they have something to do with a season of the year and that they are quite short. Each poem’s style, rhythm, and meter is unique. The poems are organized by whichever season they relate to, starting with Daybreak Reminds Us, by Cid Corman for spring, and ending with Night, by Herbert Read for winter. There are no indexes, though there is a table of contents at the beginning which organizes the poems by season and time of year. 

The illustrations are very effective at creating more engaging poetry. While the poems are quite short, and deliberately so, one could spend a lot longer examining the detailed drawings which take up the entirety of each page. It is easy to picture a child being more engaged by the pictures than the short poems, though each is placed strategically to ensure that they don’t distract from the poetry or vice versa.

Janeczko, P. B., & Sweet, M. (2018). Firefly July: A year of Very Short Poems. Candlewick Press.