Making a strong bid for the year’s most uproarious set of new verse, this collection opens with a “Whoosh!”—“The wind is blowing / quite a breeze. / The wind is blowing / on my knees. / The wind is blowing / its spring dance. / It tells me I / forgot my pants.” It closes by rhyming “laugh” with “giraffe,” and in between delivers an unrelieved spate of clever knee-slappers on topics from sports to siblings, shopping to passing gas. Koren illustrates each of the 100-plus entries with characteristic crosshatch sketches—mostly of children wearing innocent, glum, annoyed or ingratiating looks, as appropriate. Katz’s earlier outings, most of which were illustrated by David Catrow, may have more visual flash, but this one’s both larger and more suited to independent readers. Children—never mind adults—will find the urge to read aloud from these pages well nigh irresistible. One more: “I stuffed my lunch / in my race car— / salami and some soda. / It used to be a Chevy, / but it now is a / Toy-odor.” (Poetry. 7-11)
Pub Date: March 4, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-0204-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2008
Broad and subtle in turn—verse to stay with readers for years to come.
A tasty mix of visionary and nonsense verses, lavishly illustrated by a recent Caldecott Medalist.
Systematically gathered into seven loosely thematic groups, the poems, likewise tidy of rhyme and scansion, range from meditations on “Zero” and the many colors of the sky to silly wordplay (“What kind of pizza / do you like to eatsa?”) and a droll paean to pasta that rhymes spaghetti with yeti. The notion of flying away almost serves as a running theme; in various entries, a piñata, a child on “Jetpack Sneakers,” a breaching whale, and, for a moment, a boy waking to a sparrow’s song take off into the sky. Salati depicts a menagerie of creatures both real and imaginary that share space with a rich and racially diverse assortment of small figures who often resemble Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library outtakes for their large-headed, stubby-limbed looks and balletic poses. The entries are lighthearted overall; several read like nursery rhymes. Burgess displays a keen intuition for what will get kids laughing—and what will make them think. One poem, perhaps a reference to current politics, invites them to “leave the shouters with their schemes / while we continue with our dreams,” while another urges them to “live your dream / Reign supreme / King or queen / or something / delightfully / in between.”
Broad and subtle in turn—verse to stay with readers for years to come. (index) (Poetry. 7-11)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781774880289
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
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