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COME AND PLAY

Name: COME AND PLAY
Author: Ayana Lowe
ISBN: 978-1-59990-245-6

CHILDREN OF OUR WORLD HAVING FUN

edited by Ayana Lowe & photographed by Magnum Photo Agency ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2008

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This album pairs 29 photographs drawn from the Magnum archives with free-verse reactions collected from (anonymous) children by the editor, a New York City teacher. The pictures capture young people in many parts of the world displaying a range of emotions and expressions as they engage in games and dances, hang out together or generally horse around in a variety of settings. Though most of the photos are in arty black and white, they all radiate a playful tone that even very young viewers will pick up. The accompanying comments are plainspoken and, usually, thoughtful: “Fun is a motion. / Something that you really like. / Trying to fly, you feel a tingling / sensation inside of you. / Yippee!” The buoyant tone is infectious, and the format invites children to contribute observations of their own. (map, photo notes, editor’s note) (Picture book poetry. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-59990-245-6

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

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ZILOT & OTHER IMPORTANT RHYMES

by Bob Odenkirk ; illustrated by Erin Odenkirk ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 10, 2023

A lackluster collection of verse enlivened by a few bright spots.

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Poems on various topics by the actor/screenwriter and his kids.

In collaboration with his now-grown children—particularly daughter Erin, who adds gently humorous vignettes and spot art to each entry—Bob Odenkirk, best known for his roles in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, dishes up a poetic hodgepodge that is notably loose jointed in the meter and rhyme departments. The story also too often veers from child-friendly subjects (bedtime-delaying tactics, sympathy for a dog with the zoomies) to writerly whines (“The be-all and end-all of perfection in scribbling, / no matter and no mind to any critical quibbling”). Some of the less-than-compelling lines describe how a “plane ride is an irony / with a strange and wondrous duplicity.” A few gems are buried in the bunch, however, like the comforting words offered to a bedroom monster and a frightened invisible friend, not to mention an invitation from little Willy Whimble, who lives in a tuna can but has a heart as “big as can be. / Come inside, / stay for dinner. / I’ll roast us a pea!” They’re hard to find, though. Notwithstanding nods to Calef Brown, Shel Silverstein, and other gifted wordsmiths in the acknowledgments, the wordplay in general is as artificial as much of the writing: “I scratched, then I scrutched / and skrappled away, / scritching my itch with great / pan-a-ché…” Human figures are light-skinned throughout.

A lackluster collection of verse enlivened by a few bright spots. (Poetry. 6-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023

ISBN: 9780316438506

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

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HONEY, I LOVE

by Eloise Greenfield & illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2003

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Iffy art cramps this 25th-anniversary reissue of the joyful title poem from Greenfield’s first collection (1978), illustrated by the Dillons. As timeless as ever, the poem celebrates everything a child loves, from kissing Mama’s warm, soft arm to listening to a cousin from the South, “ ’cause every word he says / just kind of slides out of his mouth.” “I love a lot of things / a whole lot of things,” the narrator concludes, “And honey, / I love ME, too.” The African-American child in the pictures sports an updated hairstyle and a big, infectious grin—but even younger viewers will notice that the spray of cool water that supposedly “stings my stomach” isn’t aimed there, and that a comforter on the child’s bed changes patterns between pages. More problematic, though, is a dropped doll that suddenly acquires a horrified expression that makes it look disturbingly like a live baby, and the cutesy winged fairy that hovers over the sleeping child in the final scene. The poem deserves better. (Picture book/poetry. 6-8)