Grade 1-4?This collection of light verse about insects and spiders ranges from free form to rhyming stanzas. Subjects include a vegetarian spider who passes up a cicada and "The Almost Indestructible Last Housefly of Summer" who "Wipes his feet/On...NutraSweet!/Hear the ZZZZZ/Of housefly buzz?/That is what he is/?or was!" Most are infused with offbeat, slightly macabre humor. Delicate, fiendishly agile illustrations in watercolor and sepia offer a perfect complement to the tone and humor.?Sally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ages 5^-9. Although the title is certain to raise the eyebrows of some British library patrons, Lewis' bug poems will tickle the funny bones of the elementary-school set. Twenty-four poems in a picture book format occasionally celebrate the beauty of insects (the ladybug is a "speckled spectacle of spring"), but they arouse a giggle more often than they spark a sense of wonder--as, for instance, when the groom disappears after a spider weds a fly. Chess' watercolor-and-ink pictures are a good match for the slightly macabre humor. The insects and spiders are a chunky, wild-eyed group, and most have shoes enough for all their feet. Not as rich or as deep a collection as Douglas Florian's Insectlopedia , but this will be good fun as an additional purchase. Susan Dove Lempke
After nearly three decades as a professor of economics, J. Patrick Lewis turned to poetry. He is the author of more than 75 children's books including A Hippopotamusn't (1990), BoshBlobberBosh (1998), Please Bury Me in the Library (2004), First Dog (2009), Spot the Plot (2009), and The House (2009).
He has recently been named the third U.S. Children's Poet Laureate (2011-2013) by the Poetry Foundation.
His books have been published by Creative Editions, Knopf, Atheneum, Dial, Harcourt, Little, Brown, National Geographic, Chronicle Books, Scholastic, Candlewick, Schwartz & Wade, Holiday House, Sleeping Bear Press, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, Dawn Publications, and others. Gulls Hold Up the Sky, his first book of adult poems, was published by Laughing Fire Press (2010).
Pat's children's poems have also appeared in CRICKET (26 times), SPIDER, LADYBUG, CICADA, ODYSSEY, RANGER RICK, HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN, Ms. Magazine, YOUR BIG BACKYARD, CREATIVE CLASSROOM, STORYTIME, STORYWORKS, CHICKADEE, AHOY, LANGUAGE ARTS, JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, BOOKBIRD, READING TODAY and over 100 anthologies. He wrote the 1992 National Children's Book Week poem, printed on one million bookmarks and distributed nationally.
Lewis has received numerous awards from the American Library Association, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and others. He was the recipient of the 2010-11 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Excellence in Children's Poetry Award, presented every two years.
WHERE I'LL BE NEXT--Schools, Bookstores, Conferences
October 14-16, 2011 Poetry Foundation--TED Lecture Chicago, Illiniois October 23-25, 2011 NY State Reading Assn. Rye Brook, New York October 28-31, 2011 Keystone State Reading Assn. Lancaster, Pennsylvania November 5, 2011 Buckeye Book Fair Wooster, Ohio November 8, 2011 Ashland University Ashland, Ohio November 15-16, 2011 St. Joseph's College Rensselaer, Indiana November 17-20, 2011 NCTE Convention Chicago, Illinois December 1, 2010 Hillview Elementary Newark, Ohio December 8, 2011 West Chester University (Dan Darigan) West Chester, PA January 18, 2012 Richard Avenue Elementary Grove City, Ohio January 24, 2012 Fouse Elementary Westerville, Ohio March 1-3, 2012 Charlotte Huck Ch. Lit. Conference Redlands, California April 3-5, 2012 Holland Hall Primary Tulsa, Oklahoma April 12, 2012 Washington-Centerville Public Library Centerville, Ohio April 13, 2012 Stingley Elementary Centerville, Ohio April 17-25, 2012 Anglo-American School Moscow, Russia April 29-May 2, 2012 IRA Convention Chicago, Illinois May 10, 2012 Wynford Elementary Bucyrus, Ohio March 22, 2013 OCTELA Conference Columbus, Ohio