Dakos, an elementary-school reading specialist, offers another school-themed collection of poetry, this time describing a school year in an unusual classroom. A creative, quirky teacher—Ms. Roys—reaches her students in some extraordinary ways, with funny accessories, odd collections, and unique room decorations. A little girl named Penny is the first-person author of many of the poems; other selections come from the viewpoints of her classmates and by Ms. Roys herself. The teacher is a real personality created through the mosaic effect of the poems: she bites her nails, writes poems for her students, and thinks of all the children who have attended the school throughout the decades as benevolent ghosts floating through the building. The collection includes 46 poems, many of them very short, and a short play for three characters. Some of the poems are sing-songy, some are silly or funny, and some are thoughtful snippets of life in the elementary-school world. Teachers in second- through fourth-grade classrooms will find this a useful and amusing addition to classroom libraries. (Poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-81117-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
A dozen familiar dinosaurs introduce themselves in verse in this uninspired, if colorful, new animal gallery from the authors of Commotion in the Ocean (2000). Smiling, usually toothily, and sporting an array of diamonds, lightning bolts, spikes and tiger stripes, the garishly colored dinosaurs make an eye-catching show, but their comments seldom measure up to their appearance: “I’m a swimming reptile, / I dive down in the sea. / And when I spot a yummy squid, / I eat it up with glee!” (“Ichthyosaurus”) Next to the likes of Kevin Crotty’s Dinosongs (2000), illustrated by Kurt Vargo, or Jack Prelutsky’s classic Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast (1988), illustrated by Arnold Lobel, there’s not much here to roar about. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58925-044-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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