"A Pond Full of Ink" by Annie M. G. Schmidt, Illustrated by Sieb Posthuma, Translated by David Colmer (LS 5663)

Schmidt, Annie M. G. 2014. A Pond Full of Ink. Illustrated by Sieb Posthuma.  Translated by David Colmer. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

ISBN: 978-0-8028-5433-9

Book cover
Photo by: L. Propes

Annie M. G. Schmidt is a highly regarded poet in the Netherlands.  Unfortunately, she isn't very well known in the United States.  A new edition of her collection of poems, A Pond Full of Ink could hopefully make her a more familiar presence in classroom and school libraries.  The bouncy rhythms,  imaginative, off-kilter narratives, and whimsical drawings will appeal to fans of Shel Silverstein.  In fact, readers' only regret might be that A Pond Full of Ink isn't longer!

The eleven poems in A Pond Full of Ink run the gamut from talking about how a fairy tale author writes his tales, using a pond full of black ink to fill his pen to Aunty Jo and the deer that has taken up residence on her living room sofa.  (On a side note: it might be an interesting exercise for students to see how fountain pens work, as it might help them imagine someone going to a pond of ink to fill a pen each day.)  Some, like "Belinda Hated Getting Clean..." is a close cousin to Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout", neither of whom enjoyed a sense of personal hygiene.  Schmidt even gives a nod to young children, and their desire to do what they want, as opposed to what the adults want in "Nice and Naughty."  She engages the imagination, by asking readers to empathize with a trio of elderly otters whose wish to boats in the river is thwarted because otters are simply not allowed or by putting a Toy Story-esque twist on furniture, imagining where the furniture might want to go when everyone has left the house (Schmidt 2014, 5; 13).  Schmidt also writes a sly observation of the way salacious gossip doesn't always match mundane reality in "Brian Brink."

Schmidt crafts the poetry with a definitive rhythm, generally with the metrical foot pattern in trochee, but I wouldn't make too much of that when reading and sharing the poetry with students.  I only mention it here because the rhythmic structure is so strong in the poetry, that you can't help but notice it.  Just to illustrate the point, here's an excerpt from "Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve:"

Detail of extended illustration
of "Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve"
Photo by: L. Propes

They sleep up there and eat up there,
it's very cozy, in the air,
except when storms are blowing.
It's quiet, large, and very green,
but Aunt sue isn't really keen --
she hates a house that's growing. 

She's never really worked out how
to park a stroller on a bough.
It leaves her very troubled.
And now the kids are getting big,
she's scared they'll slip on leaf or twig,
and all her fears have doubled. (Schmidt 2014, 16)

Two-Page Spread
Photo by: L. Propes

Schmidt also uses a great deal of rhyming couplets, as you can see in the excerpt from "Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve."  The rhyme scheme also pairs well with the rhythm, as it tends to emphasize the rhythm of the poetry.  It never gets tedious, because Schmidt is careful to not repeat a single sound too often when rhyming.  (In many cases, the rhyme structure looks like this: A, A, B, B, C, C, D, D... etc.)  There are times where Schmidt does report a rhyme scheme, but it does not happen often, and it's hardly noticeable.  Each poem also has a definite narrative structure, which makes it ideal for activities like readers' theatre or choral readings.  The poems become small stories, where sometimes fantastical events occur, such when a group of robbers who have been so successful, there is nothing left for them to steal, except the moon ("The Robbers and the Moon").  A reader can see a clear beginning, middle, and end in "The Robbers and the Moon," as well as a distinct climax.  Many of the poems in this book would serve as a great introduction to plot structure.

Sieb Posthuma's brightly-hued color illustrations have a vintage feel about them, and they look as if they came from a different era.  The brilliantly encapsulate the theme of each individual poem over a two-page spread with the poem generally appearing on one of the pages, if not spread over both pages.  Some of the drawings can't be confined to a single two-page spread, and an additional drawing appears on another two-page spread.  Often they serve to expand on the theme of the initial drawing.  The illustrations exhibit the same sort of whimsy that appears in the poetry.  In the aforementioned "Belinda Hated Getting Clean...," the following pages depict what happened to Belinda after the events detailed in the poem.  Half of the fun of the poem "Aunty Jo" is the illustration that shows a polite, demure deer perched on a sofa with all manner of things suspended from his antlers.  

Detail of one of Posthuma's illustrations
Photo by: L. Propes

One of the best features about the book are the endpapers.  They show the gentleman who writes fairy tales, mentioned in the first poem of the collection.  He's used his pen and the pond of ink to write an 'A' at the top of the pages.  At the end, there is, of course, the same gentleman with his pen, admiring the letter 'Z.'  Other such nods to the idea of a writer using a pond full of ink to pen his tales exist on the title page, where a series of drops of ink splatter their way across the title page verso and the title page itself.  We also revisit the writer at the end of the book where he's finished for the day, snoozing in a hammock, the pen at rest, and a piece of paper with the word "End" dangles from his fingers.  That pond of ink? It's dry, save for a few random puddles of ink.  All of those illustrations are thoughtful additions to the overall structure of the book.  They help introduce and conclude the work, even one as short as this one.

Like several of the poetry books I've reviewed, there are no access features: no table of contents, or index of the first lines or titles and no page numbers.  As with the others, it does make it a bit difficult to find the exact poem at a moment's notice.  This is probably an instance where the brevity of the book is an advantage.

This is absolutely a fine addition to any school, classroom, or public library, especially if you have fans of Shel Silverstein clamoring for something new to enjoy.

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Spotlight on...

"Three Elderly Otters"
Three elderly otters longed to go boating
out on the river,
out on the moat.
For years, they had wished they could be
      out there floating,
but being otters, they could help voting
signs on the seats of every last boat.
Written by renters, the miserable rotters,
they said...
FORBIDDEN FOR OTTERS 

Three elderly otters standing there crying
there by the river,
there by the moat.
Crying and weeping and finally sighing,
"Maybe the train is fun and worth trying."
But stuck in each window the spied a small note
that had them howling with their heads bowed.
It said...

Detail of one of the elderly otters
Photo by: L. Propes

OTTERS NOT ALLOWED 

Three elderly otters, tired and spent,
leaving the river
and the moat far behind,
saw in a meadow next to a tent
a big row of bicycles ready to rent,
and hung from each handlebar was a small sign
that made their day, and what did it say?
It said...
OTTERS DON'T NEED TO PAY 

Now the otters ride over the dike,
over the dike and back on their bikes. (Schmidt 2014, 5-6)

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This is a great poem to introduce the concept of personification to students.  After sharing the poem with students, the class can create a graphic organizer or the different human qualities displayed by the otters.  The class can then create a list of different animals and human actions, emotions, or characteristics.  The students, either solo or in pairs, will create a short poem or illustration/collage that depicts the animal with its humanistic qualities.  The students will post their products on the walls, and the class will perform a gallery walk, leaving comments and/or constructive criticism on their peers' work using sticky notes.

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Works Cited


Schmidt, Annie M. G. (2014). A Pond Full of Ink. Illustrated by Sieb Posthuma.  Translated by David Colmer. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.