A playful and often instructive volume of verse that introduces young readers to the world of scientific concepts.
A collection of unconventional poems for children explores technical subjects.
Wilson presents something of a rarity: poems for children on scientific and quasi-scientific themes (with some whimsy thrown in to keep the proceedings from dragging for the youngest readers). Topics like conservation, wildlife cycles, meteorology, cosmology, and personal cognition are reduced to their essentials and then dressed in simple, sometimes singsong verse. The poems are designed to both entertain and demystify, to bring terms like “hibernate,” “octillions,” and “light years” within the gambit of a children’s book. Wilson even risks a poem about the most famous equation from Einstein’s theory of special relativity, starting with the line “E = energy inside the atom.” Each poem is presented on its own page, with the piece on the following page being “commentary” on the lesson of the earlier verse. For example, a poem about evolution titled “Paws and Shoes” is followed by: “Evolution says all species are related / and only gradually change, because / of natural selection. So a long time / ago all feet might have been paws.” The rhythms of the main poems are often appealing (“Do planets sing to one another? / Do moon beams seek a friend? / Do stars wink at us at night / or is it just pretend?”). But the verse of the “commentary” pages is blander and more utilitarian. The author’s intention is clearly to make scientific concepts less intimidating to young readers—a praiseworthy ambition slightly marred whenever the author gets his science wrong (for instance, it’s vampires, not vampire bats, that only come out on Halloween). And despite Wilson’s best efforts, some verses will only confuse kids (“If you don’t know yourself / You’re apt to make mistakes. / So see a psychiatrist and get the / help you need. That’s all it takes”). But the general tone of the collection is one of fun and encouragement—two things often sorely lacking in elementary science education.
A playful and often instructive volume of verse that introduces young readers to the world of scientific concepts.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4834-7382-6
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.
A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.
Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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