An enchanting way to nurture fascination with and a love of words and poetry.
Funny words in the English language come to life in Vinson’s illustrated collection of poems.
Each poem in the collection is a highly imaginative rhyming embodiment of a peculiar (and often downright funny) word, with poems titled “Pottle,” “Quixotic,” “Hullabaloo,” and “Flibbertigibbet” (and yes, that is an actual word). A full glossary at the end defines each word, in addition to some trickier words found throughout the book. The fun is in reading the poem for a sense of what the title word means before checking the glossary for the accuracy of your interpretation. In “Bibliopole,” the speaker lists his most prized books (“Beowulf, Iliad, Anna Karenina, Dickens and Poe, / The Great Gatsby, Don Quixote, even Thoreau. // Be careful, don’t touch, these are exceedingly rare, / the pages are old so they could easily tear”), and the page includes an illustration of a proud Santa-like man in his library apron holding his precious books. “Quomodocunquize” is accompanied by an illustration of a young woman with blond hair wearing a business suit and tending her lemonade stand: “I must be clear, everything here has a price, / no freebies here, not even the ice. // The lemonade is a quarter, / the cup is a dime, / I also charge for the straw, / and that isn’t a crime.” Vinson’s illustrations are whimsical line drawings with muted watercolors, usually adding a little extra heft to the poems. For example, “Interrobang” is illustrated with a big-nosed question mark colliding with a mustachioed exclamation mark. The poetry is exquisite, the rhyming and meter feels just right, and the vocabulary has an invigorating, no-holds-barred feel to it. The book offers a rare and wondrous opportunity, mainly because there’s something practical at stake: uncovering the meaning of the title word. Even younger readers will likely delight in the musical rhythm, imagery, and silliness of the poems, at least until they’re old enough to engage with the vocabulary.
An enchanting way to nurture fascination with and a love of words and poetry.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9798990702448
Page Count: 102
Publisher: R & Stone House Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again.
Cece loves asking “why” and “what if.”
Her parents encourage her, as does her science teacher, Ms. Curie (a wink to adult readers). When Cece and her best friend, Isaac, pair up for a science project, they choose zoology, brainstorming questions they might research. They decide to investigate whether dogs eat vegetables, using Cece’s schnauzer, Einstein, and the next day they head to Cece’s lab (inside her treehouse). Wearing white lab coats, the two observe their subject and then offer him different kinds of vegetables, alone and with toppings. Cece is discouraged when Einstein won’t eat them. She complains to her parents, “Maybe I’m not a real scientist after all….Our project was boring.” Just then, Einstein sniffs Cece’s dessert, leading her to try a new way to get Einstein to eat vegetables. Cece learns that “real scientists have fun finding answers too.” Harrison’s clean, bright illustrations add expression and personality to the story. Science report inserts are reminiscent of The Magic Schoolbus books, with less detail. Biracial Cece is a brown, freckled girl with curly hair; her father is white, and her mother has brown skin and long, black hair; Isaac and Ms. Curie both have pale skin and dark hair. While the book doesn’t pack a particularly strong emotional or educational punch, this endearing protagonist earns a place on the children’s STEM shelf.
A good introduction to observation, data, and trying again. (glossary) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-249960-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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