Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* As in previous titles, such as Snowy, Blowy Winter (2008) and Summer Wonders (2009), Raczka offers an accessible, playful poetry collection. This time, each selection is both a poem and a puzzle. As the whimsical subtitle states, every entry begins with a single-word title whose letters, when rearranged, make up the words in the following lines, as in Bleachers : Ball / reaches / here / bases / clear / cheers. Each poem appears twice: first, the letters, printed in an old-fashioned, typewriter font, are scattered individually across an open background, and readers must piece them together to make words. On the following page, the words are set in more traditional, easily read lines. Pepperoni, for example, begins with swirling, unconnected letters that resemble ingredients being sprinkled onto a pizza's surface; on the next page, the letters are arranged in short lines: One / pie / no / pepper / onion. Doniger's spare illustrations add quirky appeal without distracting from the inventive formations of type. More than just clever gimmicks, the poems leave room for moving lines with a depth that invites imaginative wandering: A / silent / lion / tells / an ancient / tale, reads Constellation. Sure to have wide classroom appeal.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Inspired by the concrete poetry of Andrew Russ (aka endwar), Raczka's poems are all produced from the letters in single words, magnifying and playing on their meanings. "Vacation" is transformed into "action/ in/ a/ van," and the letters from "snowflakes" trickle down lazily as though from the sky. Several words result in more imaginative compositions: from "constellation" come the lines, "a/ silent/ lion/ tells/ an/ ancient/ tale." Some selections feel slight, but there's a subtle humor and power at work in many ("friend" reads simply "fred/ finds/ ed"), and readers may be spurred to construct their own. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-8-Raczka has rearranged letters from a single word to spell out new words, creating engaging verses that are both poems and puzzlers. The odd spacing of letters and words makes deciphering somewhat difficult, but each poem is printed on the verso with words in correct order. Quiet watercolor and ink drawings complement this catchy and innovative collection. (c) Copyright 2012. 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
Poets like nothing better than to make life difficult for themselves. In this example of that principle, poet Raczka makes poems from a single word by rearranging various letters from that word, anagram-style. Thus creative gives us "i / crave / art." Some are imagistic: moonlight is "hot / night / thin / light / moth / in / motion." Some are mini-narratives: friend is "fred / finds / ed." And one is a pizza order: pepperoni is "one / pie / no / pepper / no / onion." However, lest we find that too easy, Raczka also does a concrete poem thing with spacing, arranging each letter under the corresponding letter in the title. Thus: vacation ac tion i n ava nThe lemonade here is cool and refreshing, and it makes you want to do some squeezing yourself in this playground where poet meets Scrabble nerd. Let's try a book review.evaluation i l o ve i tsarah ellis(c) Copyright 2011. 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
Fresh off his engaging Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys(illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, 2010) and inspired by the work of Andrew Russ, Raczka continues to dabble in short lyric forms, here experimenting with images conjured up by breaking down a single word. The smaller components that comprise the subsequent free-verse poem read left to right, cascading down the page while maintaining the same horizontal letter positions as in the original word. For example, "vacation" yields "ac tion / i n / a / va n," alongside Doniger's spare three-color drawing of a family and a rabbit traveling through the countryside in a van with a canoe on the roof. For readers who find the spatiality of the lettering a challenge for comprehension, Raczka sets the poem in more standard format, "vacation / action / in / a / van," on the following page. While these 22 poems are uniformly clever, some, like "earthworms""a / short / storm / worms / here / worms / there / wear / shoes"are more successful than others, such as "flowers""we slow / for / free / wows"both in their playfulness and in evoking the suggestive depths of language. Fun as a prompt for poetic exploration but less fulfilling as a stand-alone volume.(Poetry. 8-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
