A combination poetry book, instruction manual, and collection of bug facts is the latest companion to Harley’s Fly with Poetry (not reviewed). For each letter of the alphabet, a bug poem and an illustration demonstrate a different type of poetic form, which also happens to start with the same letter. From the well-known alliteration and epitaph, to the obscure univocalic verse or the visual rhyme, this covers a wide range of both simple and difficult poetic forms. However, the strict form of many of the types presented here makes them inherently difficult to read. For example, the purseweb spider’s palindrome: “Spider spots evil: alive! Stops. Redips / eye. Radar-eye / sees / raw and tangy gnat. DNA war!” At the end, there’s a short listing (2-5 lines) of interesting facts about each of the insects. Several of Harley’s colored-pencil drawings humorously anthropomorphize the insects to illustrate a poem that will tickle the funny bone. A relative brings flowers to a grave in the epitaph: “Here lies an earwig who didn’t hear / the predator that came too near.” Others show beautiful natural settings. Poetry buffs and teachers will enjoy the varied types of poetry, kids, the humorous poems, but otherwise this is a more of a stumble than a leap. (Poetry. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56397-673-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
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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