RAINING CATS AND DOGS
by Jane Yolen & illustrated by Janet Street
It's hard to know which end's up when it's "raining cats and dogs." This engaging collection of poems, nine about each of the classic antagonists, does a flip-flop to read from both ends to the middle, with an additional symmetry in its subject sequence ("I Am Cat"/"I Am Dog"; "Alley Cat Speaks"/"House Dog Speaks," etc.). Yolen brings insight and affection for both species, plus her usual wry wit and deft versifying, to the poems (all but three new), tying the book together in the middle with a topsy-turvy spread accommodating the punning nonsense of "Raining Dogs" ("Dogmatically,/They're splashing down,/And cur-rents cover/Half the town") and "Raining Cats" ("A cataract,/A waterfall...Catastrophe,/They're purring down/On top of me"). Meanwhile, Street captures the lighthearted spirit of the verse and the movement of the creatures in exuberant stylized illustrations in rainbow bright colors. A pleasure. (Poetry/Picture book. 4-10)