Today I am going to introduce you to a poetry book that is full of poems that are "about just about everything." The beauty of a book of this kind is that it can be dipped into at random. No matter what kind of mood you are in you will find something on the pages that will work for you, a poem that will suit you perfectly at that particular moment.
Hypnotize a Tiger: Poems about just about everything
Calef Brown
Poetry
For ages 6 to 8
Henry Holt, 2015, 978-0-8050-9928-7
When it comes to books you can never quite be sure what
kind of book mood you are going to be in on any particular day. Today might be
a pirate adventure kind of day, but when tomorrow comes around you might be in
the mood for a story about witches or wizards. Poems are the same way.
Sometimes you are ready to take on a long, story poem full of rich language, and
sometimes your brain is just too tired for such full-bodied material and you
are eager to read something shorter and lighter.
The solution to
this book mood problem is a simple one: have lots of books of different kinds
so that you can always find something that appeals no matter what mood you are
in. Another approach is to have one book handy that is full of different kinds
of stories.
Calef Brown has
taken the latter approach with this book. He has written poems about “just
about everything” and they come in a variety of ‘flavors.’ Some of the poems
rhyme and some do not. Some tells stories while others describe people,
animals, or places. Most of the poems are humorous in some way, which gives the
whole collection a warm and light-hearted feel. Having so many poems to choose
from means that there will be always be something in this collection that
readers will like, no matter what kind of day they are having.
The poems are
divided into topical sections, which can also be handy if you know exactly what
you are looking for. If you wake up one morning wanting to read poems about
animals, then the “Critterverse” section is the place to go. Perhaps you have a
particular interest in cars and other vehicles at the moment, which will mean
that you should immediately go to the “Poems of a particular vehicular nature.”
Other topics include poems about people, poems about insects, schoolish poems,
poems that are fact-packed, poems that have fun playing with words, foodie poems,
and a few that are miscellaneously silly.
Throughout the
book the poems are accompanied by Calef Brown’s singular illustrations, which
really do complement the poems to a T. Readers can dip in or browse, or they
can read the book from cover to cover.
No comments:
Post a Comment