Carnival of the Animals: Poems inspired by Saint-Saens' Music

Poems by James Berry, Kit Wright, Cicely Herbert, Judith Chernaik, Adrian Mitchell, Gavin Ewart, X.J. Kennedy, Gerard Benson, Gillian Clarke, Valerie Bloom, Wendy Cope, Edwin Morgan, and Charles Causley

Edited by Judith Chernaik
Illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura

More than 100 years ago, French composer Cimille Saint-Saens wrote a light-hearted "zoological fantasy" as a surprise gift for a friend. But he just wrote it for fun and thought the Carnival of the Animals was too frivolous to be taken seriously, and so it was never performed during his lifetime. However, in this day and age, the piece is a favorite of music lovers and animal lovers alike. Each movement paints a musical picture of different animals - lions, elephants, a graceful swan. And in this book, 13 writers came together to create a book of poetry inspired by these songs. Complete with a CD featuring each poem followed by the musical passage that inspired it, this book allows us to create our mental paintings not just through music, but also through words and illustrations.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Just as each movement in the Carnival of the Animals is drastically different from the rest, each of these poems portrays a unique sense of style. Each writer clearly has his or her own personal style of writing. And although the entire book was illustrated by Kitamura, each poem (and musical movement) has a very unique illustration which is just as captivating as the poems and the music.

I have read a lot of mixed reviews about this book, but honestly I think it is great. It is always refreshing to me to see unique ways that people manage to pull together music, art, and the written word. This book could easily be read for fun by very young readers, but it also opens a whole world of possibilities for discussing the connections between all of these varying forms of art.