Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 3-6. Prelutsky is up to his old tricks, using verbal sleight of hand to create another magical anthology of light verse. Poems such as "Penguins" display an elegance of wit and style: "Penguins cautiously reside / on our planet's underside, / Where they're careful not to cough, / lest they trip and tumble off." Others appeal to a grosser humor ("Eyeballs for sale! / Fresh Eyeballs for sale! / Delicious, nutritious, / not moldy or stale") or to children's delight in wordplay (I hide my dromedary / inside of our garage, / my parents don't suspect it's there / it's wearing camel-flage"). Librarians who have trouble locating concrete poems (in which the words are placed on the page in a shape suggested by the poem's subject) for school assignments will be glad to find a few examples here. The verse finds perfect visual expression in Stevenson's witty ink drawings touched with gray wash. A delightful addition to poetry collections that will not stay on the shelf for long. (Reviewed Sept. 15, 1996)0688132359Carolyn Phelan
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Poetry's bad boys are back again, teaming up to take another swipe at stuffiness. Prelutsky's predilection for playfulness percolates throughout this collection of slyly subversive rhymes, and he couldn't ask for a better partner in crime than Stevenson, whose droll, minimalist sketches so enlivened the duo's previous escapades (The New Kid on the Block; Something BIG Has Been Here). Once again Prelutsky demonstrates a robust appreciation of the absurdand an uncanny knack for turning every possible subject on its head. Here his verse ranges from the short and sweet ("My mother makes me chicken,/ her chicken makes me cough./ I wish that when she made it,/ she took the feathers off") to poems of Jabberwockian silliness (the entry that begins " `I'm ceiling fad!' a money boned./ `Alas!' a carrot pride" is just one example). The pages are peppered with kinetic black-and-white drawings; like Thurber, Stevenson wrings a wealth of humor and emotion out of a few dashes of ink. If a laugh is what's needed, just hand over the keys and let these two drive. Ages 5-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 6-Meet Miss Misinformation, Swami Gourami, and Gladiola Gloppe (and her Soup Shoppe), and delight in a backwards poem, a poem that never ends, and scores of others. By Jack Prelutsky. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Younger, Intermediate) Illustrated by James Stevenson. The duo responsible for The New Kid on the Block and Something Big Has Been Here (both Greenwillow) have again combined talents to create an appealing collection of short poetry. Stevenson's spirited line and wash drawings effectively convey the tone of the jaunty, usually funny, often silly, sometimes gross, and always childlike poems. Memorable characters are quickly sketched in words and in pictures: Chuck, "the chore evader and adept procrastinator," has many strategies and will gladly "demonstrate them later." Sara Sue does not wish to go to school "and Mother, if you make me, / I will eat a worm or two.' / 'Do you mean worms like these, my dear?' / her mother firmly said. / I got them in the garden, / they're extremely long and red." Poems play with words, with the form and shape of language. "I'm AlL mIxED up . . . /i'M lOokinG cLOsELy at This pOEm, / bUT STIlL dOn'T HAvE a CLue." "A Dizzy Little Duzzle" meanders all around the page, while the presentation of "Zeke McPeake" is as small as his voice, "but a teeny squeak." Poems in varied typeface and placement in an open format combine with the economical line of well-placed sketches to create a fast-paced and accessible collection that's loads of fun. Index. m.b.s. Shel Silverstein, Author-Illustrator Falling Up (Younger, Intermediate) This book is patterned after (in fact looks just like) Silverstein's two phenomenally successful previous volumes, Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic (both Harper). But anyone who expects children to greet this book with the same uninhibited enthusiasm is likely to be disappointed. Some of the verses, like "Scale," in which a pot-bellied figure standing on a scale is ruminating over his weight, speak to adult concerns. Others, like "Cereal," in which the brands mentioned are not likely to appear in any child's list of ten favorite cereals, seem dated. At times, the poems take on a decidedly preachy tone. An occasional touch of the old spark appears here and there, but these are less frequent than the cheap bathroom humor, which will make adults, at least, wince: "We gave you a chance / To water the plants. / We didn't mean that way - / Now zip up your pants." For his previous collections, Silverstein can be thanked for helping to return children's poetry to its populist roots, reminding adults that nonsense can help kids wrestle with life's ironies, and teaching kids that poetry can be a shortcut to the truth. The present collection seems to have forgotten its creator's best lessons. n.v. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A collection of well over 100 poems that pop and sparkle like firecrackers, well up to the standard set by this team's Something BIG Has Been Here (1990) and The New Kid on the Block (1984). The poems vary--some are little packets of energy (``Sardines'': ``Their daily lives are bland,/and if they land- -/they're canned'') while others allow readers to take a stroll through their treasure-filled lines. Prelutsky puts his obvious delight in words to work, employing backwards writing and mirror writing, different typefaces and font sizes, unconventional typesetting, and unfamiliar words--children will scramble to find out what a manticore is and why its eyeballs might be nutritious. The poems' subjects range from spaghetti seeds, to a flock of defiant pigeons, to more philosophical musings: ``I'm drifting through negative space,/a frown on my lack of a face,/attempting to hear/with a tenuous ear/what nobody says in this place.'' Prelutsky loosens his agile imagination in words, while around the pages cavort Stevenson's interpretive line drawings, shimmy-shimmying to the beat. Terrific. (Poetry. 5+) (First printing of 115,000; author tour)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
