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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poems for the future Edward Gorey-lover, November 5, 2005
I don't know poetry. If you were ask me to explain the relative merits of such poets as Ogden Nash, Bob Hicok, and Rumi you'd probably get the highly intelligent answer of "Guh?". I also do not know children's poetry. My knowledge of that particular genre consists entirely of the usual Shel Silverstein/Douglas Florian/Jack Prelutsky/Karen English stuff they force down your gullet in elementary school and then abandon once you realize you can't write it yourself. I don't know poetry, but I know what I like. And I like Theodore Roethke. I once sent a query to a children's literature listserv asking various children's literary scholars, librarians, and authors what they felt were the most unappreciated kids' books out there. One knowledgeable soul suggested this book as well as Roethke's, "I Am, Says the Lamb". As I've mentioned before, poetry isn't exactly my thang. Still, I decided to rough it out since there's no denying that poems really do make for quick reads. What I found was a book that has more in common with the aforementioned Shel Silverstein and creepy German classic "Stuwwelpeter" than I ever would have thought possible. You've got animal poems, creepy poems, insightful poems, and disturbing poems. Everything, in fact, that your average child reader should be exposed to as early as possible.
There are twenty-seven poems in all here and of these twenty-two are about animals. There's a rather telling poem about a turtle named Myrtle (no relation to Dr. Suess' Yertle, I assure you). One of a kitty-cat bird that commits suicide when it discovers that it has no original tendencies. One that compares rats to the backs of eels rolled in grease. That sort of thing. Many of these poems grow contemplative and broad as their thoughts expand upon the page. In thinking about a tiny meadow mouse that has escapes from his care into the wild, Roethke says, "I think of the nestling fallen into the deep grass / The turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the highway / The paralytic stunned in the tub, and the water rising - / All things innocent, hapless, forsaken". Roethke has a tendency towards the dark, but he also is comfortable with seeming nonsense rhymes. Consider the poem "A One Is a Two Is" where he states, "I wish I was a pifflebob / I wish I was a funny / I wish I had ten thousand hats / And made a lot of money...". Some of these poems are limericks. Some are free verse. Some have the usual four stanzas and some are extended to six. The poems selected for this book were chosen by Roethke's wife Beatrice and perhaps they were never intended for children originally. Whether they were or not, though, they make a lovely little collection that is perfect for the kid with a streak of darkness in 'em.
The fact that Amazon.com recommends this book to children in the age range of "Baby-Preschool" is misleading at best. The illustrations by Julie Brinckloe alone belie this. Ms. Brinckloe never really became that well-known an author/illustrator. Her best known work, "Fireflies", is probably what most people would remember her for. I, on the other hand, prefer to think of her darker work in this book. With simple pen-and-inks and a definite sense of humor, Brinckloe's images are chipper if somewhat creepy conjurations inspired by Roethke's awry sense of humor. There's a particularly nice image that accompanies "Night Crow" where the poem reads that a tremendous bird flew, "Further and further away / Into the moonless black / Deep in the brain, far back". The picture is of a boy with a crow embedded deeply into his head. Such images look a lot like early Paul Zelinsky, and once in a while add the softer edge that Roethke's poems require.
I wonder, looking at this book, whether parents will steer their children away from it. It would be a shame. Sure the poem "My Papa's Waltz" seems more like a thinly veiled story of battered child than a carefree dance. Still, for all the darkness there is much to love in Roethke's images here. Most cleverly, the editors of this book chose "Child On Top of a Greenhouse" as the introductory poem to the book. It's a beautiful poem and with just seven lines it deserves to be written here. Consider it the perfect way to understand a child's book of poetry that deserves to be remembered.
Child On top of a Greehouse
The wind billowing out the seat of my britches,
My feet crackling splinters of glass and dried putty,
The half-grown chrysanthemums staring up like accusers,
Up through the streaked glass, flashing with sunlight,
A few white clouds all rushing eastward,
A line of elms plunging and tossing like horses,
And everyone, everyone pointing up and shouting!
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