THUNDERBOOM!

The subtitle implies the essential weakness of this poetry collection. The varied verses within may well offer one or two poems that please individual readers, but are unlikely as a group to find an appreciative audience. As in many earlier works, Pomerantz’s writing reveals a global outlook. In the title poem, for example, readers learn the word for thunder in 10 different languages. Literary connections ground several works: A brief limerick alludes to the work of James Joyce; a longer poem honors Margaret Wise Brown. Other poems focus on the joys of going barefoot, celebrating Passover and a dialogue between Jonah and the whale. Shepperson’s pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations add humor, charm and a sense of coherence to the collection (for example, the “drowsy bumbling bumblebee” pictured snoozing in a pink flower shows up again pages later in the portrait of a just-engaged mole and vole). Despite their appeal and the undeniable quality of the writing, however, the publisher’s description of this as a “ragtag, boodlebag of poems” remains unfortunately apt. (Poetry. 8-12)