A PIZZA THE SIZE OF THE SUN
by Jack Prelutsky & illustrated by James Stevenson
A collection of well over 100 poems that pop and sparkle like firecrackers, well up to the standard set by this team's Something BIG Has Been Here (1990) and The New Kid on the Block (1984). The poems vary—some are little packets of energy (``Sardines'': ``Their daily lives are bland,/and if they land- -/they're canned'') while others allow readers to take a stroll through their treasure-filled lines. Prelutsky puts his obvious delight in words to work, employing backwards writing and mirror writing, different typefaces and font sizes, unconventional typesetting, and unfamiliar words—children will scramble to find out what a manticore is and why its eyeballs might be nutritious. The poems' subjects range from spaghetti seeds, to a flock of defiant pigeons, to more philosophical musings: ``I'm drifting through negative space,/a frown on my lack of a face,/attempting to hear/with a tenuous ear/what nobody says in this place.'' Prelutsky loosens his agile imagination in words, while around the pages cavort Stevenson's interpretive line drawings, shimmy-shimmying to the beat. Terrific. (Poetry. 5+) (First printing of 115,000; author tour)