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LAST LAUGHS

Name: LAST LAUGHS
Author: J. Patrick Lewis
ISBN: 978-1-58089-260-5

ANIMAL EPITAPHS

by J. Patrick Lewis Jane Yolen & illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2012

Some spry and inspired grave humor here, but weighed equally with some unimaginative efforts.

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Cracked epitaphs from Lewis and Yolen.

This is a collection of 30 tombstone remembrances with an eye for the emphatically stamped exit visa. Ushered along by Timmins’ smoky, gothic artwork—and sometimes over-reliant upon it for effect—these last laughs take on a variety of moods. Sometimes they are gruesome, as with the newt, “so small, / so fine, / so squashed / beneath / the crossing / sign.” There are the macabre and the simply passing: “In his pond, / he peacefully soaked, / then, ever so quietly / croaked.” Goodbye frog—haplessly, hopelessly adrift in the olivy murk, a lily flower as witness and X's for eyes. When writers and artist are in balance, as they are here, or when the Canada goose gets cooked on the high-tension wires, the pages create a world unto themselves, beguiling and sad. It works with the decrepitude of the eel and the spookiness of the piranha’s undoing. But there are also times when the text end of the equation lets the side down. “Firefly’s Last Flight: Lights out.” Or the last of a wizened stag: “Win some. / Lose some. / Venison.” Or the swan’s last note: “A simple song. / It wasn’t long.” In these cases, brevity is not the soul of wit, but lost chances at poking a finger in the eye of the Reaper.

Some spry and inspired grave humor here, but weighed equally with some unimaginative efforts. (Picture book. 7-10)

Pub Date: July 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-58089-260-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
I AM ELEPHANT
by J. Patrick Lewis ; illustrated by Miriam Nerlove

- BOOK REVIEW
IT'S NOT THE PUPPY
by J. Patrick Lewis & Leigh Lewis ; illustrated by Maddie Frost

- BOOK REVIEW
THE POETRY OF US
edited by J. Patrick Lewis

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IN PRAISE OF MYSTERY

by Ada Limón ; illustrated by Peter Sís ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2024

A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be.

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In U.S. Poet Laureate Limón’s debut picture book, soaring images and lyrics invite contemplation of life’s wonders—on Earth and perhaps, tantalizingly, elsewhere.

“O second moon,” writes Limón, “we, too, are made / of water, // of vast and beckoning seas.” In visual responses to a poem that will be carried by NASA’s Europa Clipper, a probe scheduled for launch in October 2024 and designed to check Jupiter’s ice-covered ocean moon for possible signs of life, Sís offers flowing glimpses of earthly birds and whales, of heavenly bodies lit with benevolent smiles, and a small light-skinned space traveler flying between worlds in a vessel held aloft by a giant book. Following the undulations of the poet’s cadence, falling raindrops give way to shimmering splashes, then to a climactic fiery vision reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night before finishing with mirrored human figures made of stars. Visual images evocative of the tree of life presage what Límon writes in her afterword: that her poem is as much about “our own precious planet” as it is about what may lie in wait for us to discover on others. “We, too, are made of wonders, of great / and ordinary loves, // of small invisible worlds, // of a need to call out through the dark.”

A luminous call to think about what is and to envision what might be. (Picture book. 7-10)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9781324054009

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Norton Young Readers

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
AND, TOO, THE FOX
by Ada Limón ; illustrated by Gaby D'Alessandro

- PROFILES
Ada Limón Ponders the Mysteries of the Universe

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THE SUPERHEROES EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

by Marilyn Singer & illustrated by Noah Z. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 24, 2012

When budgets or problems aren’t quite right for the likes of Spider-Man or the Dark Knight, here’s a reasonably priced...

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From Blunder Woman to Stuporman, this gallery of underemployed B-list superheroes is up for any task.

Got rats and mice? Call on the (inch-high) Verminator! Supernatural foes will flee from the garlic foam wielded by Muffy the Vampire Sprayer. Afflicted by gangsters? “When racketeers insist on quiet / and it’s not wise to start a riot, / send the Baby, send the Baby.” Furthermore, “And if those cries don’t make them hyper, / Weapon Two is in the diaper.” Along with having distinct individual powers and abilities, several of these eager job seekers combine to offer enhanced services. Armored Sir Knightly and The Masked Man, both aging veterans, can team up to entertain at children’s parties, for instance, and Kelly (ejected from the Green Lantern Corps for wearing a heterodox shade of green) will join silk-spinner Caterpillar to design stylish new costumes for “Trendy Defenders.” Using a free range of page designs from sequential panels to full-spread scenes, Jones reflects both the changing rhythms and the overall buoyancy of Singer’s rhymes with simply drawn, brightly colored cartoon views of each S.E.A. member in action.

When budgets or problems aren’t quite right for the likes of Spider-Man or the Dark Knight, here’s a reasonably priced alternative. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)