Moving on to the letter D, the duo responsible for A Curious Collection of Cats (2009) turns to the kennel with 34 vividly illustrated concrete poems. Franco delves into her arsenal with cinquain, haiku, rhymed and free verse, as Wertz employs boldly colored multimedia collage that echoes Esphyr Slobodkina in palette and feel if not simplicity. While the result succeeds in representing a variety of breeds (including mutts) in a panoply of dogginess (sleeping, playing ball, waiting to be let out, chasing cats, eating everything in sight, claiming furniture), the overall effect dazzles to the point of stunning. Some collaborations produce winning portraits, such as “Cassandra Riding in the Car”—“Without a doubt / the very worst part / is when Cassandra / makes a fart”—or “Letting Gwen In and Out,” where the text is cleverly set both in and outside of the door, but the graphics tend to be so busy that it’s hard to know where to look, and the sometimes clunky meter falls flat. An ambitious collection that might have achieved more had it attempted less. (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)
