But It's So Silly: A Cross-cultural Collage of Nonsense, Play and Poetry

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.