"Considerably more edgy satire than Happily Ever After here; a bracing take for teens. (Poetry. 12-16)"
From Puss in Boots' swaggering descendant "Puss-in-Trainers" to the titular break-and-enter artist caught on security cameras, Agard lays urban-inflected modern twists on 29 folkloric characters.
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"Steer readers who can't face the original to Marcus Sanders and Sandow Birk's weirdly campy but grand illustrated rendition, Dante's Divine Comedy (2004). (Poetry. 12-15)"
"In the middle of my childhood wonder / I woke to find myself in a forest / that was—how shall I put it—wild and sombre."
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"Teachers will find this book a calming and positive voice in a classroom and will come to think of the collection as a paradise of teaching opportunities. (Poetry. 12+)"
An ebullient yet harmonious cache of assorted poems by a Guyanese performance poet who has made Great Britain his home since 1977.
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"With poems and illustrations for many moods, this volume with its lively language and playful pictures is sure to please. (index of poets and first lines) (Poetry. 6-12)"
A blend of sea and land, leavened with some scary creatures from folklore, served up with the local foods and fruits, and then spread to other colder parts of the globe, this anthology is a lively mix of rhythms, stories, and descriptions that illuminate the geography and culture of the region, while providing a variety of linguistic and visual delights.
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"A mixed bag, but a good introduction for newcomers to Agard's work."
The "weblines" Agard refers to are those spun by the West African trickster spider-god Anansi rather than those of the Internet, but in the constant playfulness that runs through the first third of his latest collection, Agard has no qualms about giving Anansi her own "website" in the more contemporary parlance as well.
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"It's hard to locate favorites without an index or table of contents, but the endpapers place the poems perfectly with a colorful map of the Caribbean. (Picture book/poetry. 4-7)"
These 39 bouncy rhymes require a little practice before reading aloud; the rhythms are tricky, but irresistible.
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