The Arrow Finds its Mark : A Book of Found Poems

Edited by Georgia Heard

Illustrated by Antoine Guilloppé

Poetry can be found everywhere, even in the most unexpected places. In her introduction, poet and teacher Heard makes the case that sometimes poems already exist out there and are just waiting to be discovered, in Facebook updates, signs in a hardware store, or dictionary entries. The poets who were asked to contribute, including well-known poets such as Jane Yolen and Naomi Shihab Nye, were given the challenge of finding text that already existed in another form and presenting it as a poem. The titles they provide help to give meaning: “Pep Talk,” for instance, uses phrases like “See a brighter solution” and “Maintain freshness” to create poetry from words found on a box of OxiClean detergent. “Places I’d Love to Van Gogh Someday” employs the evocative titles of Van Gogh’s paintings, such “Beach with Figures and Sea with a Ship” and “Road with Cypress and Star.” This short collection brings together a number of such found poems, along with the name of the poet who found them and the source. The poems range from funny to meditative, and could serve to inspire students to find their own poems. The black-and-white illustrations are prosaic and don’t add much to this otherwise appealing volume. 2012, Roaring Book Press, Ages 11 to 16, $16.99. REVIEWER: Paula Rohrlick (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9781596436657

Emily and Carlo

Marty Rhodes Figley

Illustrated by Catherine Stock

Local author Marty Rhodes Figley presents a little known side of the reclusive Emily Dickinson in this lyrical, carefully researched biography. At the age of 19, the poet received a Newfoundland puppy from her father, and the dog, whom she called Carlo, became her constant “shaggy ally” in walks round the town and fields of Amherst, Massachusetts. Watercolors by Catherine Stock beautifully convey the robins and hollyhocks of Dickinson’s 19th century world as well as the “mermaids in the basement” of her imagination, and Figley weaves quotes from Dickinson’s letters and poems into her narrative, giving readers a chance to experience the poet’s voice. This tender book not only charmingly introduces young people to one of America’s finest poets but makes a lovely gift for adult fans of Dickinson and dogs. 2012, Charlesbridge, Ages 7 to 11, $15.95. REVIEWER: Mary Quattlebaum (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9781580892742

Every Day’s a Dog’s Day: A Year in Poems

Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by Miki Sakamoto

Romp through assorted holidays and celebrations with lively pups, kids and families as multiple perspectives spring to life from a dog’s point of view. Verses feature Buddy, Rosalie, Barkley and Fizz who never seem to run out of energy from season to season performing charming feats, getting into mischief, stirring up emotions, and completing the family circle all year. In both free verse and rhyme, poems reflect the whims and fancies of a dog’s world using conversational phrases. Prominent holidays along with particular favorites are described: burying bones, grooming, chasing cats, playing games, going to the vet’s, marching in a pet parade, scratching fleas, and typical first experiences. Children associate familiar activities on every page with their own year-round festivities or family traditions. Incorporating a repeating cast of characters fosters memorizing poems as whimsical illustrations enhance the rhythms in a lively way. Expressed in lengthy renditions or simply given in a line or two, this collection of verses is worthy of sharing over and over again. 2012, Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin, Ages 3 up, $16.99. REVIEWER: Susan Treadway, M.Ed. (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9780803737150

Falling for You

Lisa Schroeder.

Rae lives life around the edges; avoiding the spotlight, hiding the extent of her financial situation and family drama from her friends and teachers. She dreams, though–dreams of being able to move out, of being happy, of being loved unconditionally. When a new guy, Nathan, arrives at school and notices Rae, some of those dreams seem to be within reach, but elation quickly turns to fear as Rae realizes that Nathan has a dark side. Tragedy lands Rae in the ICU floating between life and death, and in that place, she must find the courage to fight for the life she deserves. Obsession, neglect, abuse, friendship, and love abound in Schroeder’s new novel. Each chapter starts with a poem from Rae’s poetry journal and the structure of the book leads readers through the six months leading up to the hospital. The poetry aspect of this novel gives readers a chance to peek into the depths of Rae’s soul and adds dimension to her character. Schroeder has done a wonderful job of creating teenage characters from a variety of backgrounds and using those backstories to influence their actions. This novel is ripe for use in a classroom or a book club; discussion points include: healthy relationships, poetry as expression, relationship boundaries, and more. Readers looking for a realistic teen read saturated in emotion will love Falling For You. 2013, Simon Pulse, Ages 15 to 18, $16.99. REVIEWER: Rebecca Denham (VOYA).

ISBN: 9781442443990

Follow Follow : A Book of Reverso Poems

Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by Josée Masse

With Mirror, Mirror (BCCB 4/10), Singer introduced the cunning poetic “reverso,” a free-verse poem that creates a very different meaning when the order of the lines is reversed. This volume brings fourteen new poems, with an introduction and a valedictory bookending a dozen folktale-themed verses. Hans Christian Andersen is particularly well represented as the source of nearly half the poems (“Birthday Suit,” for instance neatly captures the disparity of the emperor’s and trickster’s thoughts in “The Emperor’s New Clothes”), and his tales are joined by other classics such as Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” (“Ready, Steady, Go!”) and “The Three Little Pigs” (“Can’t Blow This House Down”). It’s a form at its best for illuminating contrasting viewpoints: in the Pied Piper poem, “Follow Follow,” one verse tells of the town’s brushoff of the piper while the other conveys the piper’s chilling vengeance; in “Your Wish Is My Command,” Aladdin and the genie in the lamp have very different ideas of freedom. Each full-page image is divided down the middle to mirror the poems, and the acrylic art is bursting with luminous blues, sunny yellows, and verdant greens. The delicate striations suggest painting on wood, especially in gold-touched details that resemble gilt-enhanced carvings. These are delightful to read and read aloud, and they’re a curricular dream for discussions of poetry, folklore, and point of view. A note about poetic form and a collection of brief notes about the tales are appended. 2013, Dial Books for Young Readers, Ages 6–up, $16.99. REVIEWER: Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books).

ISBN: 9780803737693

Forget-Me-Nots : Poems to Learn by Heart

Compiled by Mary Ann Hoberman

Illustrated by Michael Emberley

Former children’s poet laureate Hoberman compiles a broad range of poems for young readers–brief enough to invite memorization–from writers including Frost, Silverstein, Sandburg, Milne, and Grimes, among many more. The works are divided thematically into categories like “Sad and Sorrowful,” which features “Song” by Keats and “My Father” by Hoberman (“My father doesn’t live with us./ It doesn’t help to make a fuss;/ But still I feel unhappy, plus/ I miss him”); “Weather and Seasons”; and “Poems from Storybooks,” with excerpts from The Wind in the Willows, James and the Giant Peach, and The Fellowship of the Ring. Emberley offers cozy mixed-media cartoons, which warmly evoke the poems’ themes and images. A multidimensional and thoughtful cross section of verse with keepers on nearly every page. 2012, Megan Tingley Books, All Ages , $19.99. REVIEWER: Publishers Weekly.

ISBN: 9780316129473

If You Were a Chocolate Mustache : Poems

J. Patrick Lewis

Drawings by Matthew Cordell

In offbeat poems that include haikus, limericks, riddles, and wordplay of every kind, current children’s poet laureate Lewis offers quirky contemplations, silly vignettes, and improbable events. Rather than rely on a single theme, Lewis smoothly jumps between out-of-left-field ideas: a dragon serves as a clothes dryer, Bigfoot laments that he can’t find stylish shoes in his size, and an old turtle complains to the sky that there is “nothing new under the sun,” only to have his claim challenged by a snowflake. The result: loosely integrated poems that can easily stand on their own. Cordell’s pen-and-ink cartoons have an improvisational energy that complements Lewis’s off-kilter verse. 2012, Wordsong/Boyds Mills, Ages 8–up, $18.95. REVIEWER: Publishers Weekly.

ISBN: 9781590789278

In the Sea

David Elliott

Illustrated by Holly Meade.

Elliott and Meade take us into the sea, as they did to the farm and the wild, to meet its inhabitants. Brief, cleverly evocative rhymes succinctly portray each character, sometimes with humor. The sea horse, the shark, the octopus, and the starfish swim across double pages, while urchin, sardine, mackerel, and shrimp share a spread. The herring: “Nobody’s fool. / How could she be? / She lives in a school!” and the dolphin each get a page, while the orca and the sea turtle each requires two. Coral, anemones, and the clown fish exist together, while the moray eel, the chambered nautilus, the giant squid, and the puffer fish each requires a double page. A final poem is a tribute to the blue whale. The woodblock prints have an organic, almost casual appearance, particularly when they produce animated swirls that suggest the movements of the sea. Equally animated are the naturalistic sea creatures in their habitats. Transparent watercolors enhance the scenes that are convincing environments for all, from the schools of tiny sardines to the immense blue whale. 2012, Candlewick Press, Ages 4 to 8, $16.99. REVIEWERS: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9780763644987

Leave Your Sleep

[Selected by] Natalie Merchant

Pictures by Barbara McClintock

In 2010, singer-songwriter Merchant released the recording Leave Your Sleep, a set of songs adapted from poems for and about children. As the title suggests, these poems–from the likes of Ogden Nash, e.e. cummings, and Charles Causley–carry a hint of the uncanny, and Merchant enthusiastically engages with klezmer, Dixieland jazz, zydeco, and other musical styles. “oetry on the page can be difficult to penetrate; sometimes it needs to be heard,” Merchant writes in her introduction to this print compendium, which provides 19 poems (seven fewer than the album) and a tie-in CD. McClintock contributes nostalgic illustrations that evoke the 1860s to 1920s. Fittingly, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Land of Nod” leads the selections, and McClintock offers a quaint forest path, complete with dainty mouse parade, insect orchestra, and wonderland child. McClintock channels Randolph Caldecott in her sequence of circus pictures for Rachel Field’s “Equestrienne” and recalls the collaborations of Shepard and Milne when she illustrates Edward Lear’s “Calico Pie.” As curious as can be–in the Victorian sense of the word–this collaboration transports readers and listeners on multiple sensory levels. 2012, Frances Foster Books, All Ages, $24.99. REVIEWER: Publishers Weekly.

ISBN: 9780374343682

Look! Another Book!

Bob Staake.

An all-you-can-eat buffet of images greet readers in Staake’s interactive seek-and-find book, a companion to Look! A Book! (2010). Die-cut circles provide sneak peeks of objects on the preceding and following pages (“Look! A chair! A pear! A miniature bear! A skunk! A trunk! A UFO punk!”), connecting wildly diverse spreads that visit urban, spooky, and even extraterrestrial settings. The happily hectic scenes brim with irreverent details. A zoo (“areful, or you’ll step on poo!/ Quick! Now find the crab fondue!”) features a ghost, robot, and a monster on a leash who join a tiger, in addition to the usual animal suspects, while modern art masterpieces creep out of their frames at a museum. Staake’s enthusiastic verse is contagious in a book that promises hours of offbeat entertainment. 2012, Little, Brown, All ages, $16.99. REVIEWER: Publishers Weekly.

ISBN: 9780316204590

My Brother’s Book

Maurice Sendak

In poetry and with pictures, Sendak embraces memories of his brother. The brothers become separated, Jack to a realm of ice where his nose freezes, and Guy to Bohemia and the lair of a bear. Guy offers a riddle to the bear who wants to eat him. Guy whispers to the bear, dives into the bear’s maw, and lands in a springtime world. A meadow bird’s song tells Guy about a boy entwined by a wild cherry tree. Guy discovers a cherry tree with Jack rooted in it. Guy bites Jack’s nose and releases him. “And his arms, as branches will, Wound round his noble-hearted brother, Who he loves more than his own self.” Jack sleeps enfolded in his brother’s arms. Guy whispers that Jack will dream of him. The painting shows the two brothers entwined in sleep. A forward by Stephen Greenblatt draws parallels to work by Shakespeare. This tribute to Sendak’s dead brother was published posthumously by Sendak’s estate; Sendak died on May 8, 2012. 2013, HarperCollins Publishers, Ages Adult, $18.95. REVIEWER: Carlee Hallman (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9780062234896

Poem Runs : Baseball Poems and Paintings

Douglas Florian

Fifteen poems celebrate the opening of a new baseball season, pay tribute to many of the field positions (and even the much-resented umpire), and bring the season around to its bittersweet but inevitable conclusion. Not all poems rise to the high bar Florian has set in much of his previous work, with a few stumbles in the scansion (“I block with my belly,/ I nab with my knees./ Throw me jars of jelly./ I’ll grab them with ease”) and a few punchlines that don’t quite showcase Florian’s customary sparkle (“Catch a ball lightly./ Jump up and jog./ Warm yourself up/ Like a fireplace log”). The roughly textured mixed-media paintings on paper bags are a goofy pleasure, though, with players in impossible stretches across the double-page spreads as they demonstrate their particular skills. Middle-graders may be better pleased with Charles R. Smith, Jr.’s Diamond Life or the Lee Bennett Hopkins collection Extra Innings, but this could have considerable appeal for the younger end of the target audience. 2012, Harcourt, Ages 7 to 10, $16.99. REVIEWER: Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books).

ISBN: 9780547688381

The Poet Upstairs

Judith Ortiz Cofer

Illustrations by Oscar Ortiz

Words can transport you anywhere is the underlying theme of this exquisite picture book for young readers. It all starts with a little girl who is not feeling well on the first day of school and has to stay at home to rest in her apartment. Unbeknownst to her, a poet has moved in to the upstairs apartment. The little girl, Juliana, loves books and her mother reads to her in English and Spanish. With the use of her imagination, Juliana hears the click clacking of the typewriter above and transports herself to a floating river, a tiny tropical island, and lake. Eventually, she does meet the poet upstairs and through her guidance writes her own poems. The resonating message of using your imagination to take you anywhere, and words having the power to change your world, echoes throughout the story of Juliana. The colorful illustrations complement Juliana’s world of being transported to El Gran Río. This book is a wonderful multicultural read. 2012, Piñata Books, Ages 5 to 9, $16.95. REVIEWER: Rosa Roberts (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9781558857049

Stardines Swim High Across the Sky and Other Poems

Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by Carin Berger

Prelutsky crafts his usual clever verses, this time about a series of sixteen imaginary creatures with humorous qualities we can easily picture. His stardines swim across the sky, for example, “…their brilliant lights/ Illuminate the darkest nights.” No one dreads his fountain lions; “They all have fountains on their heads.” The sobcat “…spends its time crying/ Continuously.” Other interesting and amusing characters include bluffaloes, slobsters, jollyfish, the gloose, and wedgehogs. Paralleling Prelutsky’s delightful linguistic productions we find Berger’s inventive images, miniature dioramas that are assemblages of very complex combinations of materials, ultimately photographed digitally. Assorted tacking pins and labels mixed with small groups of stardines on the end pages and title pages prepare us for the full page visuals and accompanying tacked-on page of text. Invention is the name of the visual game, with intellectual challenge to match the esthetic. The paper jacket is illustrated with jollyfish and stardines; simulated wood and a couple of simple labels adorn the cover. 2012, Greenwillow Books, Ages 4 to 9, $17.99. REVIEWERS: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children’s Literature).

ISBN: 9780062014641

We Go Together! : A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse

Calef Brown

Despite its greeting-card size, Brown’s collection of 18 love and friendship poems is anything but stock. In “FBF,” two friends share memories about their “greenish phase” (“We… concocted strange juices/ with lettuce and kale./ We trained an iguana/ to get us the mail”), while later poems discuss gratitude (“My mind was in a panic,/ but you remained calm,/ ready to do battle/ with the splinter in my palm”) and laughter (“I cackle/ and you chortle./ Together we chorkle”). Brown’s bean-nosed, long-legged monsters, and eccentrically attired dogs, cats, and humans are as unusual and memorable as ever, as he pairs a heaping spoonful of nonsense with unexpected yet genuine observations about the joy of companionship. 2013, Houghton Mifflin, Ages 4–8, $9.99. REVIEWER: Publishers Weekly.

ISBN: 9780547721286

Information and activities about Poetry can be found online at

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/

http://www.booklistonline.com/Everyday-Poetry-Award-Winning-Poetry-for-Youth-Sylvia-Vardell/pid=5299199

http://www.rhymezone.com/

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/magnet.html

Updated 04/01/13

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