But It's So Silly: A Cross-cultural Collage of Nonsense, Play and Poetry (Paperback)
How are ideas of play shaped by culture? What is imagination, or creativity, and where does poetry fit into this mix? For the past decade, award-winning children's author JonArno Lawson has been collecting children's poetry, lap rhymes, finger games and stories of how people interact with young children across the world, drawn to each culture's unique approach. In this wide-ranging collection we learn of language play from Malta, round games from Jamaica, Yiddish hand rhymes, and of the wonderful and complex ways these are all passed down through generations. Along the way Lawson looks at the implications for how North American society approaches childhood and what we might gain from looking at things differently.
JonArno Lawson is the author of many books for both adults and children, including the well-received wordless book, Sidewalk Flowers. He lives with his family in Toronto.
“Enjoy it While it Hurts is a delight and a great introduction to Lawson’s talent and breadth of style. Not quite comedy and not quite tragedy but somewhere in between, this book reveals his unique relationship with life and all the people in it with our awesome, heart-breaking, perplexing ways. Oh, humanity.” —ARC Poetry Magazine
“I was delighted to find that Lawson is continuing the tradition of illustrated poetry that is as philosophical as it is whimsical.” —Town Crier
“I was delighted to find that Lawson is continuing the tradition of illustrated poetry that is as philosophical as it is whimsical.” —Town Crier