LEAP INTO POETRY

A combination poetry book, instruction manual, and collection of bug facts is the latest companion to Harley’s Fly with Poetry (not reviewed). For each letter of the alphabet, a bug poem and an illustration demonstrate a different type of poetic form, which also happens to start with the same letter. From the well-known alliteration and epitaph, to the obscure univocalic verse or the visual rhyme, this covers a wide range of both simple and difficult poetic forms. However, the strict form of many of the types presented here makes them inherently difficult to read. For example, the purseweb spider’s palindrome: “Spider spots evil: alive! Stops. Redips / eye. Radar-eye / sees / raw and tangy gnat. DNA war!” At the end, there’s a short listing (2-5 lines) of interesting facts about each of the insects. Several of Harley’s colored-pencil drawings humorously anthropomorphize the insects to illustrate a poem that will tickle the funny bone. A relative brings flowers to a grave in the epitaph: “Here lies an earwig who didn’t hear / the predator that came too near.” Others show beautiful natural settings. Poetry buffs and teachers will enjoy the varied types of poetry, kids, the humorous poems, but otherwise this is a more of a stumble than a leap. (Poetry. 7-10)