MESSING AROUND ON MONKEY BARS
And Other School Poems for Two Voices
by Betsy Franco & illustrated by Jessie Hartland
A cheeky romp through elementary schoolchildren’s academic and social lives. Though readers could tackle the poems alone, differences in typeface cue the possibility for two readers to share the poems aloud in Joyful Noise fashion, alternating lines and sharing others in a clever script that reflects children’s school-day experiences. Poems cover a variety of topics from losing one’s lunch money to reaching out to a new classmate (“Where did you come from? / Far away. / Miss your friends? / Every day”) to exasperating a (rather unfortunately stereotypical) stodgy librarian. Hartland’s energetic gouache illustrations adopt a naïve style that matches the playful spirit of the text while serving as a splendid complement to its evocation of children’s voices. This book gets high marks. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)