Care and research are evident throughout this poignant book, which is much more than its subtitle, “Poems of the Sea”; in...
A collection of illustrated poems explores human travel across oceans through history.
Poems by 12 different poets explore, from the 15th century up to the present, human travels on the “blue road”—the oceans. Spanning Columbus’ voyage to “a new world” and the refugee crisis of the 21st century, and including the middle passage slave trade, Jewish Holocaust refugees, the Titanic, the Mariel boatlift, and the Irish Potato Famine migration, along with many others, the poems tell stories that are beautiful, sad, thought-provoking, and necessary. The full-bleed illustrations—drawings based on archival images and finished with some digital manipulation—aim to be the “visual equivalent” rather than “literal illustration” of the poems, but some are more successful than others—in particular the stark, vulnerable image that accompanies Jane Yolen’s twinned poems about the Jewish refugee ship St. Louis. Many illustrations offer the same full-bleed dark blue palette, which, through repetition, becomes numbing rather than evocative. Historical notes, such as a statement on the devastating effect of Columbus’ legacy of exploitation of the native inhabitants of the Caribbean, are relayed in the book’s backmatter, which also includes short bios on the poets and, interestingly, the typefaces used.
Care and research are evident throughout this poignant book, which is much more than its subtitle, “Poems of the Sea”; in essence and in sum, it is a history of inhumanity. (Picture book/poetry. 8-14)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63322-276-2
Page Count: 35
Publisher: Seagrass/Quarto
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
Readers can count on plenty of chuckles along with a mild challenge or two.
Rollicking verses on “numerous” topics.
Returning to the theme of her Mathematickles! (2003), illustrated by Steven Salerno, Franco gathers mostly new ruminations with references to numbers or arithmetical operations. “Do numerals get out of sorts? / Do fractions get along? / Do equal signs complain and gripe / when kids get problems wrong?” Along with universal complaints, such as why 16 dirty socks go into a washing machine but only 12 clean ones come out or why there are “three months of summer / but nine months of school!" (“It must have been grown-ups / who made up / that rule!”), the poet offers a series of numerical palindromes, a phone number guessing game, a two-voice poem for performative sorts, and, to round off the set, a cozy catalog of countable routines: “It’s knowing when night falls / and darkens my bedroom, / my pup sleeps just two feet from me. / That watching the stars flicker / in the velvety sky / is my glimpse of infinity!” Tey takes each entry and runs with it, adding comically surreal scenes of appropriately frantic or settled mood, generally featuring a diverse group of children joined by grotesques that look like refugees from Hieronymous Bosch paintings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Readers can count on plenty of chuckles along with a mild challenge or two. (Poetry/mathematical picture book. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0116-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“He called on me. / My answer’s wrong. / Caught like a squirrel / on an open lawn. / Standing alone, / twiddling my paws, / frozen in place, / working my jaws. / I’d like to bolt, / but where? / I moan. / Could anyone / be more / alone?” Poet, educator and storyteller Holbrook returns with a collection of 41 poems about school worries and classroom problems. Here readers find substitutes and pop quizzes, bullies and homework storms. Nearly half of the poems have appeared in previous collections, but here the white space around each poem is filled with poetry facts, definitions and challenges to get young poets writing. Some entries are more successful than others; a few have odd rhymes, others a jangle in the rhythm. The title, too, is quite misleading: There is only one zombie poem. However, the subjects will resonate, and the hints and tips will excite young writers whether they currently love poetry or not. Sandstrom’s serviceable pen, ink and faded watercolor spot illustrations are as hit-and-miss as the poems. This is good classroom poetry, though, if not verse for the ages. (Poetry. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59078-820-2
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Wordsong/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
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