Hailstones and Halibut Bones By Mary ONeill

Mary ONeill ´ 8 Download

Hailstones And Halibut Bones, Mary O'Neill's renowned 1961 work of poetry about the colors of the spectrum, has become a modern children's classic. Leonard Weisgard's lovely illustrations are a perfect accompaniment to the poems. Hailstones and Halibut Bones

This was given to me by friends of my parents when I was very small. It seemed like a fuddy-duddy book, but I absolutely loved it. I don't think I was reading yet, or had just started, so my mother read it with me. I'm happy to see it's a classic and still around. I can still see some of the illustrations in my mind's eye even though I haven't opened the book in 200 years. Hardcover These poems were okay (except for using an Indian as an example of the color Red. C'mon O'Neill, even leaving political correctness aside Native Americans are not actually carmine). They didn't do much for me, but I see many people really liked them, so ymmv.

I had the 1989 reissue with illustrations by John Wallner, which are completely different from the original. I think the original Leonard Weisgard illustrations did a better job of depicting the colors.



Also, Wallner, you need to be a bit more mindful, because some of these look a little... wrong.

Hardcover We really enjoyed this book, luckily we bought a copy with the original illustrations which are wonderful and fit perfectly with the book. Two or three pages on each colour tell you the obvious-things that are that colour, and the not so obvious-feelings, sounds and experiences. Although the poetry isn't wonderful, we enjoyed the thoughts behind the words and look forward to making some of our own. Lovely, creative book. Hardcover Delightful! Hardcover After a shift in one of London's hospitals, my husband asked Would you have a short story for a patient of mine? She's so bored. A nurse tried something by Hemingway but it finished with the word cock or something like that. Not appropriate at all. She's an old woman.

That night, I searched my books for a story that might help the hours pass for this nameless, faceless, woman. I reached for a collection of fables but found them too cruel. Malamud, too alien. Those in The Sunday Times Magazine were too harsh. What a failure literature has become! All the anger that pervaded its pages. Where was the solace? Where was the steady rhythm of sentences ending only to begin with another like the soothing swish of waves?

Rejecting the shelves of my life's work teaching literature, I turned to a slim volume of poetry I had loved in childhood. It was Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Color. Opposite a picture of a woman in a veil, long before such figures were commonplace on our streets, I read:

Time is purple
Just before night
When most people
Turn on the light -
But if you don't it's
A beautiful sight . . .

I could imagine enduring pain to those words. In his voice, I could listen. Yes. Positively.
Try this, I told him on the way to his next shift.

Leonard Weisgard's illustrations are the best. If you can find it, read that original edition. Hardcover

Love the illustrations and color. The poems are good. They made me think of colors in a different way.

Unlike another reviewer I didn't feel like I was being dictated to but encouraged to think about colors and see them differently. Just my opinion.

Do agree with another reviewer - the reference to red is an Indian was jarring and took points off. Hardcover Beautiful verses creating lovely images in a single hue. This is a wonderful going to bed book for my son, it's extremely soothing. Unfortunately it puts my mom to sleep faster than it does him, so she can't use it. I however can read it over and over.

The title poem:

What is White?
White is a Dove
And lily of the valley
And a puddle of milk
Spilled in an alley---
A ship's sail
A kite's tail
A wedding veil
Hailstones and
Halibut bones
And some people's
Telephones.
The hottest and most blinding light
Is white.
And breath is white
When you blow it out on a frosty night.
White is the shining absence of all color
Then absence is white
Out of touch
Out of sight.

White is marshmallow
And vanilla ice cream
And the part you can't remember
In a dream.
White is the sound
Of a light foot walking
White is a pair of
Whispers talking.
White is the beautiful
Broken lace
Of snowflakes falling
On your face.
You can smell white
In a country room
Toward the end of May
In the cherry bloom.


My favorite poem is Black. You'll have to get the book to read it!


Hardcover I was given the Wallner edition.. The pictures are lovely. But I can't rate the book. It reminds me of The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. I should love both of them, but I actually despise them. Why?

Because they *decree.* Content is gray, and sleepiness, too. Says who!? *I* say sleepiness is a warm brown, tbh. ... So, ok, yes, both books could be used in a classroom to inspire creative writing. Fine. Teach thus: In Brown's opinion... in O'Neill's opinion... How do you feel about these colors, these things?

But still. If the full book is shared before the students start to write, I'm concerned that their own creativity would be stifled. I *know* mine is. Any attempt I would make now would certainly be only a reaction, a response, nothing fresh or creative.

And also, many children encountering it don't even have that guidance. They're definitely reading it as Established Wisdom. And I honestly don't think either Brown or O'Neill intended that. So, too bad, sorry, but: Fail. Hardcover This book is fantastic for teaching poetry. I love it. It's good for description, metaphor, 5 senses, etc, and my students have really enjoyed reading the short poems. Hardcover This is an excellent book, and I love the color poems. They are well written and they rhyme, too. I also thought is was funny to read the introduction in the book and see that publishing Hailstones and Halibut Bones was almost a mistake. The author was due with some work that was not yet ready. So her publisher came over to her house and took a look around in hope of finding SOMETHING she could use. That's when her publisher found a bunch of poems all stuffed in a desk drawer that the author, Mary O'Neill, had written and collected over the years and that is how this book came to be. Hardcover