PLINK PLINK PLINK

by Byrd Baylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 1971

Di-versified make-believes and correctives on things that go bump in the night. . . . On sounds that you hear ""When you're in your bed/ And the lights are out/ And the stories are read/ And all the good-nights/ Have already been said/ And there's nothing left to do/ But sleep."" The pace slackens as the poems proceed to particularize one idea eight times per one tiresome pattern: a noise (""FLIP FLAP/ FLAP FLOP"") evokes an image (""A seal must be bouncing/ A ball that won't stop""), and the fantasy doesn't stop either until it's been flimsily embellished for some 20 lines (""He's not good at it yet/ But he still likes to try./ He does his act in dark rooms/ Because he's shy. . .""); the realization (""It's only a window shade banging away"" in the case of FLIP FLOP) is climactic just once but not sevenfold more (ZING ZING ZONG, RUSH SHUSH HUSH, MUNCH CRUNCH CR-R-RUNCH). Moreover, whenever the rhythm is sacrificed to the vision or vice-versa the enfeebled farce becomes forced, and since it can all be apprehended speedily in the night light of the pictures, there's an audiovisual time lag -- CLUMP BLUMP.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: CHILDREN'S