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

September 2017
320 Pages | ISBN 978-1-928088-45-5

**Honorable mention in the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American 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.

Click here to read the Preface and Chapter One from But It's So Silly.

Reviews

But It's So Silly (Human Givens Journal, 12/12/2017)
"Although Lawson is mostly thought of as a children's poet (and, happily, he is a very successful one) his work is of a kind that in my opinion no right-thinking adult can resist – light, witty, loving, sparkling, nonsensical, often philosophical, funny, punny, paradoxical, jokey. But, above all, his words trigger thinking."

Articles

‘But Its So Silly’ Jon Arno Lawson (Vanguard Online, 28/12/2020)
A short mention of JonArno's book in this round-up of kid's books.

Find Your New NYE Traditions in This Excerpt from JonArno Lawson's But It's So Silly: A Cross-cultural Collage of Nonsense, Play and Poetry (Open Book, 19/12/2017)
"But It's So Silly examines creativity, play, and imagination (including poetry) through a cultural lens, all in Lawson's intimate and wonderfully readable voice. From Malta to Jamaica (and many other places and cultures), Lawson's explorations draw on his background as a children's writer, and ask intelligent and essential questions about the state of childhood and play."

Errata

Click here for the corrected Hebrew for "Ten Fingers."

About the Author

JonArno Lawson is the award-winning author of numerous books of poetry for children and adults, including Black Stars in a White Night Sky, A Voweller’s Bestiary and Think Again. A two-time winner of the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Children’s Poetry, he lives in Toronto with his wife and children.

Other Titles by this Author

Enjoy It While It Hurts (2013)