bookshelf

AT THE HEIGHT OF THE MOON

Name: AT THE HEIGHT OF THE MOON
Author: Annette Roeder
ISBN: 978-3-7913-7480-2

A BOOK OF BEDTIME POETRY AND ART

edited by Annette Roeder & Alison Baverstock & Matt Cunningham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 2, 2021

Put it back to bed, it’s underslept.

bookshelf

The poetry of bedtime in words and images.

Divided into six sections that examine various aspects of sleep (“Dreamland,” “Mind Ablaze,” and “Creepy Crawlies and Things That Go Bump in the Night,” for instance), this anthology pairs a variety of topical poems with a curated group of famous paintings meant to capture the moods expressed by the poets. It’s an exciting idea, especially as poetry is often incorrectly perceived as serious and intimidating. Sadly, though, the result of this curation is a Eurocentric period piece that reinforces more stereotypes about poetry than it dismantles. Practically every artist represented is White (Utagawa Hiroshige, represented by two works, is a lonely exception), and every human face depicted, except those in Karl Friedrcih Christian Welsch’s Crossing the Desert at Sunset, is White. There is equally scant diversity among the poets. Children should be exposed to poetry and artwork, but when every major museum in the free world is engaged in conversations about equality, representation, and inclusivity, this book isn’t going to open any doors or advance any conversations. This is a title destined to collect dust in a gift shop—not to engage readers looking to learn more about art and its various forms of expression. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Put it back to bed, it’s underslept. (Poetry. 8-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021

ISBN: 978-3-7913-7480-2

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Prestel

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
VEGGIE POWER
by Annette Roeder ; illustrated by Olaf Hajek ; translated by Paul Kelly

COUNTING IN DOG YEARS AND OTHER SASSY MATH POEMS

bookshelf

COUNTING IN DOG YEARS AND OTHER SASSY MATH POEMS

by Betsy Franco ; illustrated by Priscilla Tey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2022

Readers can count on plenty of chuckles along with a mild challenge or two.

bookshelf

Rollicking verses on “numerous” topics.

Returning to the theme of her Mathematickles! (2003), illustrated by Steven Salerno, Franco gathers mostly new ruminations with references to numbers or arithmetical operations. “Do numerals get out of sorts? / Do fractions get along? / Do equal signs complain and gripe / when kids get problems wrong?” Along with universal complaints, such as why 16 dirty socks go into a washing machine but only 12 clean ones come out or why there are “three months of summer / but nine months of school!" (“It must have been grown-ups / who made up / that rule!”), the poet offers a series of numerical palindromes, a phone number guessing game, a two-voice poem for performative sorts, and, to round off the set, a cozy catalog of countable routines: “It’s knowing when night falls / and darkens my bedroom, / my pup sleeps just two feet from me. / That watching the stars flicker / in the velvety sky / is my glimpse of infinity!” Tey takes each entry and runs with it, adding comically surreal scenes of appropriately frantic or settled mood, generally featuring a diverse group of children joined by grotesques that look like refugees from Hieronymous Bosch paintings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Readers can count on plenty of chuckles along with a mild challenge or two. (Poetry/mathematical picture book. 8-11)

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5362-0116-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
A SPECTACULAR SELECTION OF SEA CRITTERS
by Betsy Franco ; illustrated by Michael Wertz

- BOOK REVIEW
DOUBLE PLAY
by Betsy Franco & illustrated by Doug Cushman

- BOOK REVIEW
METAMORPHOSIS
by Betsy Franco & illustrated by Tom Franco

bookshelf

LEMONADE

AND OTHER POEMS SQUEEZED FROM A SINGLE WORD

by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Nancy Doniger ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2011

bookshelf

Fresh off his engaging Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys (illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, 2010) and inspired by the work of Andrew Russ, Raczka continues to dabble in short lyric forms, here experimenting with images conjured up by breaking down a single word. The smaller components that comprise the subsequent free-verse poem read left to right, cascading down the page while maintaining the same horizontal letter positions as in the original word. For example, “vacation” yields “ac tion / i n / a / va n,” alongside Doniger’s spare three-color drawing of a family and a rabbit traveling through the countryside in a van with a canoe on the roof. For readers who find the spatiality of the lettering a challenge for comprehension, Raczka sets the poem in more standard format, “vacation / action / in / a / van,” on the following page. While these 22 poems are uniformly clever, some, like “earthworms”—“a / short / storm / worms / here / worms / there / wear / shoes”—are more successful than others, such as “flowers”—“we slow / for / free / wows”—both in their playfulness and in evoking the suggestive depths of language. Fun as a prompt for poetic exploration but less fulfilling as a stand-alone volume. (Poetry. 8-12)