Effie Lee Newsome was one of the first African American poets who primarily published poems for children. She was the author of one volume of poetry, Gladiola Garden: Poems of Outdoors and Indoors for Second Grade Readers (The Associated Publishers, 1940), and she published numerous poems in the Crisis, Opportunity, and other leading journals of the Harlem Renaissance. She also edited the children’s column “Little Page” in the Crisis. Her poems helped her young readers celebrate their own beauty and recognize themselves in fairy tales, folklore, and nature. [Source: Poets.org]
Though Newsome’s volume of poetry targets second graders, I used it in Term 1 of this year with all of my children. I didn’t discover the book until after a couple of my children were older, but the poems are so delightful that I didn’t want them to finish school without hearing them.
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Gladiola Garden is out of print and very difficult to obtain. Updated October 2020: It has been reprinted by Living Book Press with a foreword written by yours truly! Yay!
At one point, a used copy was selling online for $2500 (bahahahahaha!), but now you can get a beautiful reprint of Gladiola Garden with all of the original illustrations.
I was able to find a digital copy on a public library site, but they loaded each and every page individually as a separate file (Who does that?). That is certainly not a pleasant way to read a book, so I cramped up my fingers over the summer with some hours of opening, copying, and pasting so I could have the complete volume in a single file. Although that makeshift copy served me well, I’m so glad to finally have a pretty copy that I can keep on our shelf and use for years to come.
Please enjoy one of the most precious volumes of poetry I’ve had the pleasure of sharing with my family…
Gladiola Garden by Effie Lee Newsome
You’ll certainly have your own favorites, but my six-year-old used the poem below for poetry recitation, and there is nothing cuter than watching him recite this poem and then start giggling every single time. I’m not sure, but I think he may know a daddy who does similar things for his little boy from time to time.
Quoits*
by Mary Effie Lee Newsome
In wintertime I have such fun
When I play quoits with father.
I beat him almost every game.
He never seems to bother.
He looks at mother and just smiles.
All this seems strange to me,
For when he plays with grown-up folks,
He beats them easily.
*Quoits is a ring toss game
Thank you so much for sharing!
You’re quite welcome! I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so much for your hard work and generosity with this poetry book! I’m going to incorporate it in my kids’ school this year.
You’re welcome! I was so excited when I found it and really wanted to share it with other families.
Thank you for sharing! What a lovely book!
I’m glad that you like it!
This is a treasure! Thank you so much for sharing!
You’re welcome! I had to share because we loved it so much.
I’m planning for next school year as a first time Charlotte Mason momma of 3 black kiddos 2 of whom are boys!!! Sooooo thankful for your encouragement and resources!!!!
Welcome! I’m really happy to have you here, and I hope that you find many things that will help enrich your journey. I’m actually working on a post about fun books for boys, so be on the lookout for that soon.
This is amazing!! I was so excited when I first learned about Effie Lee Newsome and laughed off my chair when I saw how expensive her books were on Amazon. Hahaha! Thank you so much for this!!
I cracked up laughing too because that price is INSANE. I didn’t even bother to put it on my wish list. So you can imagine how ECSTATIC I was when I found it online. I hope you enjoy!
What a treasure! Thank you for the hard work of putting it all in one place!
You’re welcome. It is such a sweet book. I hope your family enjoys it!
What a treasure and labor of love!
And you are sharing with the world!
You are a generous soul. Thank you!
You’re so welcome. I get excited about sharing treasures with other families. I’m glad that you found this sweet volume here.
Thank you so much! This is right on time.
You’re welcome. I hope you thoroughly enjoy it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I can already see from looking at this book that my
Boys are going to love these. I so appreciate this!
I’m so glad! It’s a really great book. I wish that she wrote other volumes.
I totally missed this. How exciting! I just purchased it.
I know that you’ll enjoy it. Most of the poems are more playful than the profound one you sent me, but I think that’s what makes it such a sweet choice for the early years. And, of course, I still delight in reading them myself.