The Important Book

Brown, M. (1949). The
Important Book.
New York: HarperCollins.

The Important Book

By Margaret Wise Brown

Illustrated by Leonard Weisgard

HarperCollins

New York, New York

1949

24 pages

The Important Book is a beautiful book that can be appreciated by children young and old. In short, eloquent poems it describes what is so important about the sun and the moon and the wind and the rain and pencils and chairs - and more! What makes rain, rain? But, most importantly, what makes you, you? YOU are important, and that is the most important thing about you. 

            This book is perfect for a poetry mentor text lesson. The poems are predictable in that they all follow the same format, making them perfect for students to imitate. They provide concrete guidance for students to follow but the nature of the poems still allows for tons of student creativity. Students will love writing their own "important" poems with the help of this glorious book. 

The pictures in this collection are vivid and beautiful. According to one review, Weisgard's illustrations make us think about the essence of everyday things in new ways - he captures the "spoonness of spoons, the roundness of an apple, the motion of wind." Purchase the book here.

An excerpt: 

The important thing about rain is 

that it is wet. 

It falls out of the sky, 

and it sounds like rain, 

and makes things shiny, 

and does not taste like anything, 

and is the color of air.

But the important thing about rain is that it is wet.