Books About Halibut, or not

Halistones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill. Doubleday, 1961 (republished w/ new illustrations in 1989) affiliate link.

I absolutely love this book. Here is another homeschool resource, one I used time and again when I “assisted” with a homeschool coop class on writing. It made the notion of metaphor come alive, along with personification, vivid detail—really everything I wanted to teach in that class could have come from this book.

I, of course, was not the lead teacher, so the children got lessons on what they “ought” and “ought not” write about (children being naughty, unless they are punished, was one “ought not”) which left me steaming, but alas at least I got to read, again, these beautiful poems!

What’s not to love? The first poem, “What is purple?” starts,

Time is purple
just before night
when most people
turn on the light, 

and describing purple as a “great grandmother to pink” is just lovely. Gorgeous, educational book.

Our Egypt Diorama (speaking of education!)