Reviews-Poetry

Viorst, Judith. 1981. If I were in charge of the world and other worries. Ill. by Lynne Cherry. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0-689-30863-9.

The note on the inside cover best describes Judith Viorst's collection of forty-one poems: "This book of poems is for everyone who has ever had trouble apologizing, or loved a cat, or talked too much, or burped. This book of poems is for everyone who could use a little help in turning some of their worries into laughter." Aptly, the poems tackle the worries, emotions, and insecurities that youngsters are faced with as they grow up: bed wetting, favorite pets, and puppy love.

The forty-one easy-to-read poems consider issues that are common to children, such as "Night Fun" in which a child hears adults carrying on after his bedtime. Sometimes the themes are considered from atypical perspectives, such as the not-so-happy endings to fairy tales.

The poems, written by someone who conveys deep knowledge of childhood, have a tone of authenticity. Poems like "Some Things Don't Make Sense at All" will hit home with any child who has learned that a new baby brother or sister is on the way ("My mom says I'm her sugarplum. My mom says I'm her lamb. My mom says I'm completely perfect / Just the way I am. My mom says I'm a super-special wonderful terrific little guy. My mom just had another baby. Why?"). While Viorst's humor in human situations shines through, there is a serious tone in some of the poems, creating a variety of moods throughout.

The length of the poems varies greatly; the shortest is two lines and the longest is two pages. The poems are mostly free verse and many are rhyming poems. The meter of the poems is steady, but the rhythm in some of the rhyming poems does not allow for easy reading aloud: "I wouldn't be afraid to fight a demon or a dragon, if you'd dare me. I wouldn't be afraid of witches, warlocks, trolls, or giants. Just worms scare me."

There is a lot of white space on the pages, making the poems easily readable. Lynne Cherry's pen and ink drawings grace the pages of the book. Some of the drawings are fantastic in style and others are realistic. However, they provide entertainment rather than add substance to the poems. A table of contents listing titles and a title index in the back of the book are unnecessarily redundant.

Perhaps the most creative of all the poems are those that fracture traditional fairy-tales. Kids will get a kick out of embellishments such as "And Then the Prince Knelt Down and Tried to Put the Glass Slipper on Cinderella's Foot," in which Cinderella, who remembers the prince as being more handsome the other night muses, "...I think I'll just pretend this glass slipper feels too tight." Viorst's poems guarantee enjoyment.

Sones, Sonya. 1999. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-028387-4.

Sonya Sones' Stop Pretending, based on Sones' own journals from a similar experience, tells a personal story of a young girl whose admired older sister is hospitalized for depression. The story is a verse novel or narrative poem comprised of free verse poems that stand alone or together read like a story. The poems, told in first person, are personal; at times poignant and others nasty. The book has an explicit theme of the experience of having a family member go "crazy."

When Cookie, the narrator's sister has a breakdown one Christmas Eve, she is hospitalized and the family begins to fall apart. Cookie's parents become distant and she begins to have reservations about her own sanity ("It seems / like Sister is / the crazy one, but what / if it's really the other way around / and it's / actually / me who's the crazy one, only I'm so crazy, I think / it's her?") After confiding in friends who betray her, Cookie feels aloneuntil a new boy moves into town. She receives a camera and things begin to look up for her and her beloved sister.

Cookie's emotions are powerfully revealed in the poems. Poems such as "Bicycle Ride" use figurative language to express Cookie's feelings of just ridding herself of it all: "I glide out/ onto the fresh paved road/ and pedal hard/ until the wind/ lifts my hair/ off my shoulders/ and a trap door/ at the back of my skull/ swings open, letting the gloom swirl out."

There are good days when visits to the hospital are productive and pleasant and there are bad days when Cookie's sister is destructive and seems to have relapsed. The poems have a tone of authenticity because they are derived from human experience. Sones' readers vicariously experience Cookie's emotions. In "Dr. Minton Silver," on a good day the girls learn that the dentist had always told each of them that they were the prettiest sisters when they were alone with him ("And then we start laughing / and we can't stop / and we clutch each other / until visiting hour's over / and then I think to myself / that this moment / was definitely / worth / the drilling.")

Sones' characters are well rounded and theme is realistic. As Booklist reviewer, Michael Cart says, "the poems--some as short as five lines, none longer than three pages--have a cumulative emotional power that creeps up on the reader, culminating in a moving, unexpected line or phrase" (1999) The poems, with their shock therapy and straightjackets are reminiscent of The Bell Jar, brutally honest, powerful, and full of heart-wrenching emotion.

Cart, Michael. 1999. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. (Review). Booklist 96 (15 Nov no 6): 612. In Literature Resource Center (database online). Available from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2251/servlet/LitRC?locID=txshracd2583. Accessed 16 February 2004.

Prelutsky, Jack. 1983. It's Valentine's Day. Ill. by Yossi Abolafia. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN: 0-688-02311-8.

It's Valentine's Day is a collection of humorous, light poems that can be enjoyed any time of the year. Prelutsky's poems connote experience of having once been a child experiencing the very same anxiety that his poems describe, giving the collection a feel of authenticity. Any child who has experienced Valentine's Day apprehension will sympathize and take comfort in the playful collection. The book is straightforward poetry. The Valentine's Day theme and lighthearted tone of the poems make the book appropriate for youngsters. Aside from the author and illustrator information, simple poetry and illustrations about Valentine's Day fill the pages. No background information or index is provided.

It's Valentine's Day is not an extraordinary piece of work due it its simplicity. However, children will sympathize with situations in each poem. They will relish those in which Prelutsky's imagery paints a portrait of a classroom mailbox bursting at the seams with valentines, such as "Our Classroom Has a Mailbox": "Our classroom has a mailbox / that we painted red and gold, we stuffed it with more valentines / than it was made to hold. When we opened it this morning / I was nervous as could be, I wondered if a single one / had been addressed to me. But when they'd been delivered / I felt twenty stories tall, I got so many valentines I couldn't hold them all."

Appropriately, there are fourteen easy-to-read rhyming poems to celebrate the 14th of February. Each of the poems carries a steady rhythm, often stressing the last syllable. All but two of the poems are divided into four lines, breaking on the rhyme. They are all told from the first person perspective. The use of sound is subtle, such as the onomatopoeia in "It's Valentine's Day," in which words such as "slush" suggest the scene. Alliteration is used in poems like "gluey gobs," in "My Special Cake" and "Jelly Jill Loves Weasel Will" in which characters' names (Tom Tomatoface, Flo the Fink, Linda Lemonmouth, etc.) tease the tongue.

Yossi Abolafia's painterly red and blue cartoon illustrations complement the poems well. Eleven-year-old Maicie Hahn enjoyed the book, especially the playful illustrations, but she felt like the washed-out watercolor illustrations could have been livened up even more with the use of more color, "especially Valentine's colors," she added. Prelutsky's It's Valentine's Day, while simple and straightforward, will amuse with its antics and will be appreciated by youngsters familiar with its themes.

Florian, Douglas. 1997. In the Swim. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN: 0-15-201307-5.

Douglas Florian's In the Swim is a capricious, entertaining book of poetry in which he attempts to crack the misnomers given to sea creatures. The collection is fun and is certain to foster an appreciation of poetry in any child.

Some of the poems are factual, providing information about the animals, such as The Salmon ("We spring! We bound! Our leaps astound! We jump! We vault! We somersault! Upstream we spawn / Our pearly eggs. Just think what we / could do with legs!") Figurative language, such as the "pearly eggs" paints a visual picture for the reader. Other poems, such as the Piranhas, a short poem ridden with hyperbole, are just plain fun ("It's widely known / That grown piranhas / Are long on teeth / But short on manners.")

Florian's collection is a mix of concrete poems, such as "The Sawfish," which is written in a zigzagged formation to parallel the sawfish's teeth, and lyric and rhyming poems. Florian squeezes out rhymes even when it seems impossible. Who else could think of a word that rhymes with "oysters" (boysters)? As Ellen D. Warwick stated in her review, "In the Swim casts a humorous eye on such familiar creatures as the whale, the oyster, the eel, and the skate. What's unusual here is the sheer, unforced playfulness, the ease and fluidity informing both verse and pictures" (1997).

The poems are appropriately accompanied by colorful watercolor illustrations. Some of the illustrations are representational while others are more abstract and comical, such as an illustration of the sawfish chopping through a fish as though the fish were a log and he was a chainsaw. In Florian's illustration of seahorses, they are wearing saddles and stirrups. Each picture is framed by a thick, solid border, almost giving the effect of looking into an aquarium. The endpapers are a bright blue-green, giving the book a fresh-from-the-ocean feeling.

The poetry is well-spaced and large print makes the short poems easy to read. A science lesson in disguise, the book is humorous and educational. Its puns, wordplay, and illustration will take children on an entertaining deep-sea adventure without leaving the comfort of their homes.

Warwick, Ellen D. 1997. Review: In the Swim. School Library Journal. (1 May) In Books in Print (database online). Available from http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2272/bip/. Accessed 19 February 2004.