Florian continues his poetic exploration of the entire animal kingdom, last visited in lizards, frogs, and polliwogs (2001), with this seventh entry in his successful series, following the same distinctive format: a large, square size with each short poem facing a full-page illustration. The 21 poems (with all but one rhyming) include “Dog Log” and “Cat Chat” to introduce the reader to more general characteristics, nine poems about specific dog breeds, and one about cousin wolf. Ten additional poems are about cats, mainly larger, wild cats such as the cheetah, the ocelot, and the poetically named jaguarundi, who “likes to play in jaguarundi-wear.” Three selections are concrete poems, and a four-line poem, “The Dalmatian,” has every letter o filled in to create an additional kind of spot. Several of the poems end with a dash of Ogden Nash panache: the bloodhound with senses that are “scent-sational” or the one-line question-shaped poem about the ocelot: “Why ocelots have lots of spots puzzles ocelot.” Florian’s playful watercolor illustrations have their usual understated charm, with muted tones, bold lines, and clever touches of offbeat humor. It’s rhyming cats and dogs for sure, and the creative Florian poetic zoo continues to grow. (Poetry. 4-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-216395-6
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2003
“It’s wise to stay clear / Of the dangerous cobra / All months of the year, / Including Octobra.” But it wouldn’t be wise to stay clear of Florian’s latest poetry collection, sixth in his successful series of witty poems and paintings about creatures of all sorts (Mammalabilia: Poems and Paintings, 2000, etc.). This volume includes 21 short poems about reptiles and amphibians, including common creatures such as the bullfrog and the box turtle and more exotic specimens such as the komodo dragon and the red-eyed tree frog. Teachers will like the way the rhyming poems integrate into elementary science lessons, imparting some basic zoological facts along with the giggles, and kids will love the poems because they’re clever and funny in a style reminiscent of Ogden Nash, full of wordplay and sly humor. Florian’s impressionistic full-page illustrations are done in watercolors on primed, brown paper bags, often offering another layer of humor, as in the orange newt reading the Newt News on the cover. A first choice for the poetry shelves in all libraries, this collection is toadally terrific. (Poetry. 4-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-202591-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
This heavily earnest celebration of multi-ethnicity combines full-bleed paintings of smiling children, viewed through a golden haze dancing, playing, planting seedlings, and the like, with a hyperbolic, disconnected text—``Dark as leopard spots, light as sand,/Children buzz with laughter that kisses our land...''— printed in wavy lines. Literal-minded readers may have trouble with the author's premise, that ``Children come in all the colors of the earth and sky and sea'' (green? blue?), and most of the children here, though of diverse and mixed racial ancestry, wear shorts and T-shirts and seem to be about the same age. Hamanaka has chosen a worthy theme, but she develops it without the humor or imagination that animates her Screen of Frogs (1993). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11131-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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