Stimulating exchanges, often veering off in unexpected directions.
Sallies and responses in verse make up a dialogue between two poets living on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
Many of the paired poems here have previously appeared in separate collections, but all are well integrated into this new work. Following introductory squibs (“I’m John Agard. / I’m supposed to be a poet.” “Be on your guard with Agard, / and with Lawson, use caution”), the two exchange pithy, usually lighthearted observations on multiple themes from hats to fingers, pigeons to silly pets. Though Agard’s love story of a cow and a cat prefaces Lawson’s tale of a romance between an octopus and a seahorse, the connections are seldom so direct; Agard refers to “Salt” in one poem, for instance, and Lawson writes of “Peppercorn.” Similarly, Lawson’s cautionary tale of what happened when Humpty Dumpty took refuge under a chicken leads Agard to reflect on nature vs. nurture: “Was it a little gene / that caused Jack Sprat / to eat no fat / and his wife to eat no lean?” Kitamura opens with caricatures of the two authors, then goes on to add generally tongue-in-cheek monochrome images of relevant animals, human figures with paper-white skin, decorative bits of abstract patterns, or informally drawn spot items. A page of suggested activities at the end invites readers intrigued by this interplay of poems, pictures, and ideas to create similar conversations with their own words or pictures.
Stimulating exchanges, often veering off in unexpected directions. (Poetry. 7-11)Pub Date: tomorrow
ISBN: 9781536238990
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be.
In U.S. Poet Laureate Limón’s debut picture book, soaring images and lyrics invite contemplation of life’s wonders—on Earth and perhaps, tantalizingly, elsewhere.
“O second moon,” writes Limón, “we, too, are made / of water, // of vast and beckoning seas.” In visual responses to a poem that will be carried by NASA’s Europa Clipper, a probe scheduled for launch in October 2024 and designed to check Jupiter’s ice-covered ocean moon for possible signs of life, Sís offers flowing glimpses of earthly birds and whales, of heavenly bodies lit with benevolent smiles, and a small light-skinned space traveler flying between worlds in a vessel held aloft by a giant book. Following the undulations of the poet’s cadence, falling raindrops give way to shimmering splashes, then to a climactic fiery vision reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night before finishing with mirrored human figures made of stars. Visual images evocative of the tree of life presage what Límon writes in her afterword: that her poem is as much about “our own precious planet” as it is about what may lie in wait for us to discover on others. “We, too, are made of wonders, of great / and ordinary loves, // of small invisible worlds, // of a need to call out through the dark.”
A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781324054009
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Some spry and inspired grave humor here, but weighed equally with some unimaginative efforts.
Cracked epitaphs from Lewis and Yolen.
This is a collection of 30 tombstone remembrances with an eye for the emphatically stamped exit visa. Ushered along by Timmins’ smoky, gothic artwork—and sometimes over-reliant upon it for effect—these last laughs take on a variety of moods. Sometimes they are gruesome, as with the newt, “so small, / so fine, / so squashed / beneath / the crossing / sign.” There are the macabre and the simply passing: “In his pond, / he peacefully soaked, / then, ever so quietly / croaked.” Goodbye frog—haplessly, hopelessly adrift in the olivy murk, a lily flower as witness and X's for eyes. When writers and artist are in balance, as they are here, or when the Canada goose gets cooked on the high-tension wires, the pages create a world unto themselves, beguiling and sad. It works with the decrepitude of the eel and the spookiness of the piranha’s undoing. But there are also times when the text end of the equation lets the side down. “Firefly’s Last Flight: Lights out.” Or the last of a wizened stag: “Win some. / Lose some. / Venison.” Or the swan’s last note: “A simple song. / It wasn’t long.” In these cases, brevity is not the soul of wit, but lost chances at poking a finger in the eye of the Reaper.
Some spry and inspired grave humor here, but weighed equally with some unimaginative efforts. (Picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: July 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-58089-260-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
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