A cheerful way to make a connection with the natural world.
Twenty lighthearted poems imagine the goings-on at insect school.
From arrival to the end of the day, through lessons, lunch, and recess, Harrison places anthropomorphic, familiar insects in a school environment. Graceful and humorous, these short poems allude to typical behaviors. The termites eat everything; the crickets learn to hide and annoy; the school nurse, a mosquito, always wants to draw blood; and the stink bugs…stink. With deftly constructed rhyme and rhythm patterns, lively language, and alliteration, his poems have immediate appeal. They’re splendidly matched by whimsical cartoons that reward a second look. Bayless uses watercolor, ink, colored pencil, and digital media to portray the insect scholars and their teachers. These busy “bugs,” partially clothed in pants or skirts or shirts and sometimes shoes, are engaged in appropriate activities. A horsefly sadly contemplates the D- minus in Social Skills on his report card. A ladybug attempts to count a page filled with tiny aphids. A squad of insect cheerleaders acrobatically chants the school motto: “NEVER EAT A FRIEND AT SCHOOL!” And the grasshoppers complain: “It’s fine to eat / the farmer’s crop / but eating US / has got to stop!!” This entertaining new collection would pair nicely with the author’s Bugs: Poems about Creeping Things, illustrated by Rob Shepperson (2007), for classroom use.
A cheerful way to make a connection with the natural world. (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)Pub Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62979-204-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
The more engaging musical version is available separately through iTunes and other distributors. You won’t hear the typos.
Purposeful and saccharine-sweet, these poems on religious and secular topics take on new life on the accompanying CD.
Wharnsby, a musician, has an appealing folk style, but the poetry on the page sounds forced and often trite. To interest young children in diversity, he writes such lines as “People are a lot like candy! / There’re [sic] all so different and dandy.” Describing “Piles of Smiles” that have been hidden away, he laments: “Someone misplaced the key, / causing global tragedy.” The poems range from the personal “I had a Chirpy Chick,” in which the narrator focuses on love for a pet and love for her grandmother, to a didactic poem entitled “The Mosque.” Typographical mistakes abound, with the use of “their” for “they’re” in the poem “Prayer” and in the example above, among others. Vibrantly colored flowers and plants, echoed in the handsome prayer rugs that illustrate “Prayer,” curl their way around multiracial children and adults. Most adult women wear hijab, as do some girls. With more and more Muslim families in North American communities, there is certainly a need for books of this type. Unfortunately, as with much other religious poetry collections for children, the message takes precedence over the words.
The more engaging musical version is available separately through iTunes and other distributors. You won’t hear the typos. (Poetry. 5-9)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-86037-444-2
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Kube Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Welcome, heart-gladdening poems that never come amiss.
Prelutsky is back to make your day better, even if it’s already a good one.
Here come 103 more poems from the master of silliness; the guy must dream in poetry, his output is so steady and strong. And he is everywhere in the poetic world. He tackles grief—a young gent on the afternoon his hamster died: “It was a poor, unpleasant pet / That I should probably forget. / It never had a proper name… / I miss it deeply, all the same.” He introduces a disarmingly honest goblin—“I have an awful odor, / An unattractive voice. / I’m nasty and annoying / By nature and by choice.” He effortlessly turns a haiku conundrum: “All evening I sing, / Happy on a lily pad, / Celebrating spring.” He hands readers new words, little gems, for them to play with—“easy to abhor” or “Some unsavory subterfuge”—or lets them watch as he turns a world on its head: “…I thought I made an error once— / But I was just mistaken.” Urbanovic’s black-and-white artwork displays a comfortably free hand, roving between loose and scrunched as it depicts Prelutsky’s vast company of players: Gludus, Wiguanas, Appleopards and Flamingoats.
Welcome, heart-gladdening poems that never come amiss. (index) (Poetry. 5-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-201457-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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