Readers will relish every gross and hilarious entry in this monstrous menu of misadventures, from the towering appetizer concocted by Frankenstein—a green-skinned Fred Gwynne in Rex’s detail-rich, superbly over-the-top illustrations—to the Japanese-inflected closer, “Godzilla Pooped on my Honda.” Interlaced with repeated appearances from an increasingly frantic Phantom of the Opera (who can’t get a succession of pop tunes out of his head), the verses and accompanying art go from suggesting unfortunate results when “The Invisible Man Gets A Haircut,” to making lurid allusions to the contents of “The Lunchsack of Notre Dame.” They range from why “The Yeti Doesn’t Appreciate Being Called Bigfoot,” to tracking the Mummy’s reluctance to bed down: “Here’s his new excuse: / He wants cookies with his juice. / But he won’t get far— / that’s his stomach in that jar.” Making Judy Sierra’s Monster Goose (2001), illustrated by Jack E. Davis, look like an exercise in restraint, here’s a read-aloud candidate sure to elicit loud screams—but not of fright. (Poetry. 6-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-15-205766-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
Two venerable contributors have teamed up to make a small collection of poetry for beginning readers. The I Can Read series has usually produced fine volumes that new young readers can actually read themselves; this has the added attraction of introducing various kinds of verse forms, both rhymed and unrhymed, in very short bursts. The contents are divided by season: Eleven poems each for “Winter Bits” and “Spring Things” and nine poems each for “Summer Thoughts” and “The Feel of Fall.” Not all are completely successful, but most capture that essence of perception that is good poetry. “The crickets / fill the night / with their voices— / It is like / a message / in another language / spoken to a part / of me / who hasn’t / happened yet.” That’s “The Crickets” in its entirety. Although the city is mentioned in some verses, the imagery is decidedly rural if not downright rustic, with wooden fences, dirt roads, and meadows in evidence. Children wear helmets to ride their bikes, and carry backpacks, but the pictures are timeless, if in country mode. Blegvad (First Friends, not reviewed, etc.) is a master of the vibrant line and telling detail—every leaf blows in the wind just so; every child has his or her own specific energy or repose. A small delight. (Poetry. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-026698-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the title, Stevenson’s latest corncatenation of poems and pictures, or at least its second half, has an urban flavor, from buses full of children “[l]ooking for the universe” pulling up to the Hayden Planetarium to “I love dawn, / Especially with / New York City / under it” paired to a skyline. His loose, sketchy, watercolor vignettes capture their subjects’ essence as masterfully as ever, and repeatedly demonstrate his fondness for both the familiar (a ketchup bottle, a pigeon) and the inscrutable: what is that odd hoop attached to the curb? What are those big, complicated rail-yard machines? The terse, cornversational poetry may sometimes be inscrutable itself without the picture—“The sign on the restaurant window / makes you wonder, / Is this a boast, / Or a warning?” (The sign reads: “All baking done on premises.”) But readers overwhelmed by the recent tsunami of daffy, clever verse will find the reflective, faintly elegiac tone here a cornsiderable relief and a different reason to smile. (Poetry. 7-10)
Pub Date: March 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-000597-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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