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Dear Book Lovers, Welcome! I am delighted that you have found The Through the Looking Glass blog. For over twenty years I reviewed children's literature titles for my online journal, which came out six times a year. Every book review written for that publication can be found on the Through the Looking Glass website (the link is below). I am now moving in a different direction, though the columns that I write are still book-centric. Instead of writing reviews, I'm offering you columns on topics that have been inspired by wonderful books that I have read. I tell you about the books in question, and describe how they have have impacted me. This may sound peculiar to some of you, but the books that I tend to choose are ones that resonate with me on some level. Therefore, when I read the last page and close the covers, I am not quite the same person that I was when first I started reading the book. The shift in my perspective might be miniscule, but it is still there. The books I am looking are both about adult and children's titles. Some of the children's titles will appeal to adults, while others will not. Some of the adult titles will appeal to younger readers, particularly those who are eager to expand their horizons.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Poetry Friday with a review of Here’s what you do when you can’t find your shoe

Creating inventions that solve problems or meet a need is something we humans are good at doing. We have invented machines that transport us over long distances, that allow us to communicate over long distances, that heal our bodies when they are sick or damaged, and so much more. But what about those small problems that drive us crazy almost on a daily basis? Often we do not address these issues, and year after tear people still spend time trying to find missing shoes, and still spend hours trying to keep their gardens free of leaves.

In today's poetry title you will see how some people have chosen to take on these challenging problems, with excellent results.

Here’s what you do when you can’t find your shoe
Andrea Perry
Illustrated by Alan Snow
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Simon and Schuster, 2003, 978-0689830679
Every day we are confronted with problems that are infuriating and that take time to resolve. For example, many people lose one of their shoes when they are in a rush to get out of the house, which just happens to be the most inconvenient time to lose a shoe. They spend ages searching the house for that one, irritating, maddening shoe. Then there is the problem that afflicts children all over the world: Their parents insist on buying vegetables at the grocery store. Can nothing be done to stop this horrible behavior?
   Other people have problems that are associated with the work that they do. For example, zoo keepers have a unique problem. They love the animals in their care but no matter what they do the animals tend to create a stink. People won’t come and visit the zoo if “the caribou cage has a stench.”
   Luckily for people with lost shoes, too many veggies, and smelly zoo enclosures there are inventors out there who create devices (or provide services) that take care of these and many other problems. If you are afflicted with lostshoeitis, then all you need is a Sure-footed Shoe Finder and all your problems go away. All you have to do it to place “the shoe that is missing its mate” in the device and it will set off “on its shoe-finding search” on your behalf. Using its Foot-Odor-Sensitive Vent it seeks out the missing shoe.
   To get rid of unwanted veggies in your family grocery cart all you need to do is to spray it with Veggie Be Gone, a “produce repellent you simply spray on.” What could be easier! Once a cart is sprayed with this ingenious stuff any vegetable that is dropped into the cart will “bounce right back out.”
   Zookeepers need not despair about the niff, pong, or stench that comes from their animal’s enclosures. All they need to do is to ring the Stink Stoppers, a tireless team of specialists who will fight all bad smells “until all are ex-stinked.” Armed with cleaning equipment galore they get to work. They “wipe down each walrus again and again,” and will “brush tiger teeth” and “trim hippo nails.” These fearless cleaners will have any zoo smelling sweet and clean in no time at all.
   Children and adults alike are going to laugh out loud as they read the poems in this delightful book. Comical inventions solve twelve problems that readers will immediately identify with. Yes, wouldn’t it be great if we all had a Crumbunny to eat the crumbs that we leave in, around, and under our beds. And yes, of course we would love to have a machine that could really suck up all the fallen leaves in our yard every autumn.
   With wonderfully funny rhyming verse and amusing illustrations, this is a book that will appeal to readers of all ages.

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