More sly poetry prompts, embedded in a raucous romp.
In a second round of Mesozoic mischief, two prehistoric poets continue to hone their craft while trying to avoid being eaten by toothy critics.
Having established in the opener that being “Poetry Pals” is far better than being predator and prey, Coelophysis and Frog set off to see the world and learn to write about it. They start by alternating spontaneous rhyming lines, advance to two-word poems that they dub “Blue Poos,” and finish up with “sound poems” created with a chorus of hooting, honking Parasaurolophus. Along the way, a supposedly bad—but really funny—poem (“How does a T-Rex pick his nose? / Arms too short, so he uses his toes!”) leads to a frantic flight from its irate subject, while an Archeopteryx named Hope drops in and out of view to fuel bits of wordplay and a wistful concrete poem from smitten Coelophysis: “I hope / to see / Hope / soon / and / hopefully / Hope / hopes / what I / hope.” Like the poems, the illustrations seem both simple and unpolished at first and, OK, second glances. But the hand-lettered verses and the googly-eyed dinos, both of which Angleberger places on layered swatches of creased and deckle-edged paper for a 3-D look, carry more than enough vim to leave budding poets roaring to join this brand-new writer’s group in its collective closing “ALL RIGHT!!!! Let’s WRITE!!!”
More sly poetry prompts, embedded in a raucous romp. (author’s note, further reading) (Graphic fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781419772825
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Abrams Fanfare
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
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
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos.
Young Josh needs to up his ride if he’s going to win the Trihorn settlement’s 100th-anniversary Founders’ Day race and meet his hero, Terrordactyl Bill.
Set on the Lost Plains, where ranchers tend to herds of iguanodons, and horses (if there were any) would be easy pickings for the local predators, this series kickoff pits a brash lad and sidekick and schoolmates Sam and Abi against not only the requisite bully, but such fiercer adversaries as attacking pterodactyls. Josh’s first challenge after eagerly entering the race is finding a faster, nimbler steed than his steady but old gallimimus, Plodder. Along comes Charge—an aptly named, if not-quite-fully-trained triceratops with speed, brains, and, it turns out, a streak of loyalty that saves Josh’s bacon both here and in a simultaneously publishing sequel, How To Rope a Giganotosaurus, which prominently features T. Rex’s much larger cousin. Dare adds a map, as well as spot illustrations of rural Western types (Josh and Abi are white, Sam has dark skin and tightly curled hair) astride toothy, brightly patterned dinos. In both adventures Josh weathers regular encounters with dinosaur dung, snot, and gas as well as threats to life and limb to show up the aforementioned bully and emerge a hero.
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4668-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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