Bank Street alumna Margery Baumgartner collected the featured poem to the right, along with countless others, during the more than fifty years she spent working with young children. "All were recorded with pencil and notebook while teaching with the other hand," she notes.

After working in several schools, Ms. Baumgartner founded her own, The Family School in southern California, where she put her Bank Street College graduate education to full use. She was particularly interested in understanding how young children think. One of the ways she did this was by listening to and recording their words and chants.

The compiled words and chants--poems--in Ms. Baumgartner's collection show us how the keen observations and forthright expression of early childhood make every child a natural poet. They remind us of the vital importance of the arts in children’s lives, and inspire us to listen more closely to the children in our own lives.

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Also By Margery Baumgartner:
CHILDREN SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD
A series of short books about and by children as authors

WE'RE EARLY KIDS
Teaching young children anthropology through play, crafts, drawing, and writing