View source for The Moon Spun Round: W. B. Yeats for Children by W B Yeats, Noreen Doody and Shona Shirley Macdonald

{{infobox1
|title=The Moon Spun Round: W. B. Yeats for Children
|sort=Moon Spun Round: W. B. Yeats for Children
|author=W B Yeats, Noreen Doody and Shona Shirley Macdonald
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=A brief, but vividly designed, introduction to an Irish poet you probably never thought of as being responsible for such a volume.  And therein lies the problem.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=64
|publisher=The O'Brien Press
|date=October 2016
|isbn=9781847177384
|website=http://shonashirleymacdonald.com/
|cover=Yeats_Moon
|aznuk=1847177387
|aznus=1847177387
}}

William Butler Yeats – take note, kids – the names behind those initials can see you through on many a TV quiz show, so remember them.  WB Yeats – take note, parents – for if you're like me you won't ever have considered him for a collection for young readers, if, that is, you'd even considered him whatsoever.  This edition is a case somewhat of 'never mind the words, just see ''that'' artwork' – but I know you'll want to read on and find out what I make of the text. 

On which note, I do of course have to wax lyrical about the visuals.  And they're just brilliant.  If anyone can put pen to paper and recreate ''the heavens' embroidered cloths'', then it's Shona Shirley Macdonald, on this evidence.  There's a brief lament to a fleeing squirrel, which makes the critter and the tree it's escaping up completely mythical entities.  The Sidhe here can be quite vicious-looking faerie-folk, but have an appealing turn to their eye when needed; they're often dancing in multitudes, forcing no end of detail on to the page.  And I just loved ''The Wild Swans at Coole'', and how one of the birds practically ''becomes'' the titular lake.  Oh, '''and''' the cover of this hardback edition is actually a fold-out poster of the frontispiece poem, which any Yeats fan would hold up as worthy tribute. 

But that's where I don't engage with the book.  I didn't become a fan.  I hardly recognised any of the works delivered within, save a line here or there (''Tread softly because you tread on my dreams'' principally, although I couldn't have told you anything about it as a quote).  But I didn't feel the dying urge to reread any of the pieces, whether they are just one snappy verse or no.  We get two prose pieces I found distinctly average, as regards traditional scraps of fairy-tale.  I certainly think, on this introduction, however, that even if his lifetime practice may well have been storing and recording local legend, his real output is the poetry.  But I found it a little too hum-drum, and too Victorian, for today's ears. 

Yes, there are clever rhyme schemes now and again, and some strong rhythms, which our editor suggests makes them ideal for reading aloud.  But I found hindrance to that, not least in the pronunciation of some of the Gaelic place-names.  (If you didn't know how to pronounce ''Sidhe'', and I didn't, then it's not the only lesson you will seek in this volume.)  So the Sidhe can 'host' in vain.  I wasn't urged to share with the poem's voice when it regarded an isolated lakeside cabin, for there was no effort spent in compelling me to see how great it was.  That said, there are still some certain, strong touches in places – the cats' eyes sharing a destiny with the moon, a girl dancing pell-mell in the same wind that's destroying the rightful peace of her mother and the other villagers.  In all there is a pleasant blend of earthy and rustic life, with that that's a lot more ethereal and less mundane.  But I do come to the opinion that, if you take away the fabulous visual craft of this book, it won't actually hold much interest for the stereotypical youth of today.  It never came across to me as being written exclusively for that audience, and while I don't pretend that kids can never pick up an all-ages, PG book such as this, it doesn't mean that they always should.  I really don't see children raving over these verses. 

Now that art, however… 

I must thank the publishers for my review copy. 

For poetry that hasn't aged, for this audience, you can't really go wrong with [[Now We Are Six by A A Milne and E H Shepard]].

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[[Category:W B Yeats]]
[[Category:Noreen Doody]]
[[Category:Shona Shirley Macdonald]]