Fourteen short, surreal poems originally published in Russian over 35 years ago see their first English versions, paired to dark, scratchy paintings featuring angular people and farm animals in countrified dress. The titular horse, depicted as a fastidious prancer with spots and a stylish perm, leads the way: “A horse has four shoes with black rubber soles, / Two of them new, but the others have holes. / If the weather is fair, no rain in the news, / The horse likes to wear her best pair of shoes.” Elsewhere, a couple crack nuts with their telescope and throw the shells off their roof, a curious cow confronts a stubborn turkey hauling a locked trunk, green “Mr. Croakley” rather ominously vanishes after “Mr. Quackley” passes by and a child yearns for a pet elephant. Some readers may be amused by the fitfully rhymed verses’ quirkiness, but this sampler is best considered a curiosity, for deeper collections. (Poetry. 7-11)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-9646010-1-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pumpkin House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
A dozen familiar dinosaurs introduce themselves in verse in this uninspired, if colorful, new animal gallery from the authors of Commotion in the Ocean (2000). Smiling, usually toothily, and sporting an array of diamonds, lightning bolts, spikes and tiger stripes, the garishly colored dinosaurs make an eye-catching show, but their comments seldom measure up to their appearance: “I’m a swimming reptile, / I dive down in the sea. / And when I spot a yummy squid, / I eat it up with glee!” (“Ichthyosaurus”) Next to the likes of Kevin Crotty’s Dinosongs (2000), illustrated by Kurt Vargo, or Jack Prelutsky’s classic Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast (1988), illustrated by Arnold Lobel, there’s not much here to roar about. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58925-044-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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