THEY ONLY SEE THE OUTSIDE

A teacher’s tool that reaches beyond borrowed pencils and hall passes.

Poems gathered herein cover a wide range of issues imposed on young children in school settings. Dakos handles difficult topics deftly. “Something Splendid,” a poem about a kid ripping a few legs off a daddy longlegs written in the voice of a disgusted, dismayed classmate, is poignant and penetrating. And the titular poem, in which a child ponders all the great things hiding inside him, shines because of its playful, accessible grace. However, the somber “Talking to the Mirror in My Bathroom,” in which a young girl musters the courage to disclose abuse to her school librarian, is placed beside a sweet, short rhyming verse about friendship across language barriers called “We Giggle the Same.” The shift is jarring. Topics aren’t the only thing that vary, as some poems rhyme, others don’t; some are short and sweet, others short stories. The selections—almost half from prior publications—seem to have been gathered with the publisher’s mission front of mind, suiting it best for a teacher’s class collection or a school counselor. For recreational purposes, it’s a discordant read. Oliver’s ink drawings enhance the overall book but can’t make up for the fact that a poem about a dead dog (“On the Day My Dog Died”) is placed beside the somewhat giddy short poem “Don’t Tell Me.”

Odd juxtapositions make reading this like brain freeze—unexpected and not totally enjoyable.