Flamingos on the Roof (Hardcover)

by Calef Brown (Author) "Alphabet Sherbet. Have you ever heard of it?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Allicatter Gatorpillar

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 3–6–These 29 nonsense poems, written in a variety of rhymed meters, are deliciously loaded with alliterative and assonant sounds and filled with delightful doggerel. Brown's playful verses are foolish (Life is a dream/with a nautical theme/in a barnacle built for two.); preposterous (Light bulbs on a birthday cake./What a difference that would make!); exhilarating (Boogie to the banjo./Bop to the bongo./Freeze like an igloo./Stomp like a buffalo in the Combo Tango); and filled with wordplay (Allicatter Gatorpillar/by and by/my oh my!/Allibutter Gatorfly!). The author's strong command of poetic form and his way with words make creating nonsense rhyme look effortless. Full-page, flat acrylic illustrations, most painted in harmonious jewel tones, face single-toned pages of text in a variety of colors. The style is abstract with a folk-art quality, often cartoonish, and always whimsical. The characters have humorous, stylized features and varied skin tones, ranging from pale blue to light green to burnt umber. Packed with amusing details, the paintings consistently expand upon the text. Read aloud, these poems are sure to delight listeners. They also provide a great impetus for inspiring youngsters to write nonsense poetry of their own.–Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 3-5. Meet Medusa's sister, Sally, bespectacled and toothy. Instead of hair, she has a lazy snake under her proper pink hat. Brown's lively nonsense rhymes blend the mythic and the contemporary, as do his acrylic illustrations, part folk art, part postmodern. The wry mockery of the haikus will appeal to older readers, but even preschoolers will enjoy acting out poems such as "Combo Tango" ("Stomp like a buffalo. / Drop like a yo-yo. / Swing like a golf pro. / Flip like a hairdo . . . "). One of the best poems is "TV Taxi," in which the words say there's nothing much to see, but the pictures show a taxi driver on his cell phone as a volcano, a dinosaur, a flying saucer, and a unicorn vie for attention. Words and pictures manage to be both clear and weird, an enjoyable mix. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (April 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618562982
• ISBN-13: 978-0618562985
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #140,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With this book you can enjoy such hits as, "Allicatter Gatorpillar". Order now while supplies last., June 15, 2006

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

When poetry and I meet face to face, poetry has its work cut out for it. I am not a poetry fan. Sometimes it seems to me that the world of children's poems began and ended with Shel Silverstein and that's that. As you can see, I'm a tough nut to crack. Then my boss starts gushing. Starts gushing about a little something called, "Flamingos On the Roof". I am not immediately sold. First of all, I've apparently been living in a cave for the past few years and have missed all the other books that Calef Brown has written. Secondly, I'm not sold on Mr. Brown's style of artistic expression. This feeling deepens as I open up the book and find myself facing yellow endpapers that are crammed with images from tip to toe. These images show up later in the book's poems, but I don't know that yet. So I tentatively turn the page and begin reading. And reading. And reading. And about the time I've gotten to the poem about a tattooed biker who likes to build model motorcycles in bottles, I'm sold. This is poetry to convert the unpoetic. This is a book that begs to be read aloud by kids of all ages. There's something for everyone here. Even the curmudgeonly poetry-hatin' children's librarian.

The first thing that hits you (after the overwhelming effect of the endpapers) is a large billboard. On it, someone has painted all the poems to come. There are twenty-nine in total and they range in names like, "Tiny Baby Sphinx" to "King of the Tire". Another turn of the page and you find yourself fully enmeshed in the book. Each poem is a riot of color. For example, the poem "Angus" about a now natty dresser shows a dapper dog sporting bright hunter-orange plaid with shoes to match. Turn the page and the eye cools to the mysterious and wonderful, "Flamingos On the Roof", where two girls peek out of their chimney to a deep plum-colored sky. Matching the illustrations are poems funny, introspective, and poems that are funny AND introspective. There's the poem about Medusa's sister Sally who, instead of a bunch of snakes coming out of her head, just has one, "single lazy snake". Or maybe you're a fan of the "Eight-Trees" that grow leaves in the shape of the number eight. Evocative, amusing, and always unexpected, Brown keeps the reader guessing and the poems consistently interesting.

In the fantasy world that I sometimes inhabit, I get to oversee all the editorial choices done on children's books. If I had had my way with, "Flamingos On the Roof", I would probably have changed the order of the poems themselves. The book begins with, "Alphabet Sherbet", which is a perfectly nice poem, don't get me wrong. It's just not . . . well . . . it doesn't grab you and make you want to read more. The casual purchasers might just put this puppy down after skimming poem #1. Instead, I would have begun the book with the beguiling, "Soggy Circus". For some reason, this poem was my favorite of the book. "The circus was flooded / It happened so suddenly / What would they do? / Nobody knew". I can't reproduce the entire poem here, but I love how it ended. "A clown got some laughs / with his kicking and splashing / The audience followed his cue / The strongman just played / with a toy that he made - / a green origami canoe". So lovely.

It's the range of the poems that really threw me for a loop, though. "Biscuits In the Wind" is all about "The latest song from long ago" that was "first made famous yesterday" in which a crooner sings, "My oh my, the years go by / I wonder where they've been? / Gone astray, or so they say / like Biscuits in the Wind". Later we then run across a very quiet little poem simply entitled, "Peas" that's so sweet and simple and quiet that you quite forget that earlier you were rocking out to Brown's magnificent, "Combo Tango". The art took me some getting used to, but once I got into it I couldn't imagine any other artist could have complemented these poems half as well as the author/artist himself. It's a flat style, but magnificent one.

I run a homeschooler bookgroup at my library and once in a while the kids and I do some poetry books. I can tell you right now that as soon my library purchases multiple copies of, "Flamingos On the Roof", I will be reading these puppies aloud with my young `uns. A marvelous addition to any poetry section and a rare find indeed. A great delight to stumble upon.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE CALEF!!!, January 15, 2008

By	Lisa E. Johnston "lisa in denver" (denver, CO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

You can not go wrong with any CALEF BROWN book. He has been a favorite of mine for years. The books are creative, colorful, funny and my kids LOVE them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FUNNY AND CUTE, January 11, 2007

By	Carl A. Lantz III "MR. Variety" (Hartford, CT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great book but I expect nothing less from Calef Brown. This was the last to add to our collection and our daughter loves them all.