Outside the Lines [Hardcover]

Brad Burg (Author), Rebecca Gibbon (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Here are twenty-two "concrete" poems in motion! When it comes to poetry, why shouldn't words leave their sensible rows, like kids at recess, to run, jump and glide across the page? Of course playful poetry can get tricky, too. To share the fun, let your eyes play catch or tag or soccer. Follow the path of a Frisbee, paper airplane or firefly. Roll down a hill, blow a bubble or skip a stone. It's all here-from swings to slides, spring to fall, indoors and out. Told in the voices of children, these concrete poems rhyme and will be savored long after the trick is solved.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Contrary to grownup advice, most kids know that drawing (or doing anything, for that matter) outside the lines can be a whole lot of fun. Concrete poet Brad Burg and illustrator Rebecca Gibbon's rolling, swinging, skipping, bouncing book of "poetry at play" pays delightful tribute to this concept. Each of Burg's 22 poems traces the patterns of the games they celebrate: "Catch" requires a dizzying feat of visual agility, as each word appears all the way across the page from the next, like a ball zooming from player to player. "Paper Airplane" follows the flight pattern of a newsprint jet until it winds up in the peeved teacher's hair. And "Slide" climbs slowly up the steps "all the way up to the tippy-top," only to plummet down the other side: "ooh what / a ride / I slide / and glide / I slip and / slide and / slide and / slide and / then I / stop." Gibbon's watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations are playful and appealing. Young readers will be tickled to discover that poems not only don't have to rhyme, they don't even have to stay within the lines! (Ages 4 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

(Starred review)

The poems in this high-energy debut collection mimic the shapes and forms of the children's games they celebrate. A poem about a girl on a swing follows her arc as she flies through the air, leaving a trail of words across the page; the poem "Tic-Tac-Toe" requires some knowledge of the game in order to follow the verse's flow (or else it teaches the rules as readers go along). First-time illustrator Gibbon's understated watercolor spreads and vignettes accent Burg's whimsy without overshadowing it. "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," for instance, shows only the guiding hands of the onlookers around the edges, together with a subtle sprinkling of balloons and confetti to imply a party atmosphere. In a tour-de-force, one of Burg's briefest poems puts words to the act of looking at sky and ground while rolling down a hill: "Green/ green/ blue/ blue/ green/ green/ blue/ blue/ dandelion!/ green/..."; a dizzy boy lies at the bottom of the slope as his panting dog comes running. The adventurous verses try everything from kite-flying to castle-building. Young readers will identify with most, if not all of them, and will appreciate the way their experiences can be preserved on the page. Ages 5-up.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (March 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399234462
• ISBN-13: 978-0399234460
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #775,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outside the Ordinary..., April 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Outside the Lines (Hardcover)

What a find! A children's book of poetry that isn't mind-numbingly silly or boring. Once you figure out how these poems are to be read on the page (which in itself is entertaining), you're immersed in the secret world of children at play. The little reader in my house enjoyed it so much that she was enticed to try composing her own poetry. The beautiful and child-like illustrations perfectly match the poems.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Playful Poems for Everyone....., October 10, 2002

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outside the Lines (Hardcover)

Brad Burg introduces poetry at play, 22 delightful and intriguing poems that literally run, skip, bounce, swing, float, and slide across the pages demonstrating each playtime activity. Mr Burg's poems are filled with energy, rhythm, and motion, as your eyes follow each cleverly worded activity from playing catch, tag, or soccer, throwing a frisbee, flying kites and paper airplanes, and climbing the jungle gym, to blowing bubbles, watching fireflies, jumping in a leaf pile or on your bed, and building a sand castle. Rebecca Gibbon's bright and charming illustrations enhance each verse, and help bring it to life on the page. Together, word and art offer an imaginative, interactive collection that is both a feast for the eyes and the ears. Perfect for youngsters 5 and older, Outside The Lines is a marvelous introduction to "concrete" poetry, and a fun-filled masterpiece of creativity, not to be missed.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For which kids???, April 2, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Outside the Lines (Hardcover)

Clever -- very clever -- and playful -- but I wonder whether this is a book more for those adults who appreciate the cleverness than for young kids who are just trying to learn the rules of word sequences on the printed page so they can proudly say, "I can read!" From the brief bios of the author and illustrator on the book's jacket, it would appear that both of them have played outside the lines -- or wanted to -- and there are certainly many adults who can empathize with that impulse and who will find these visual verses a delightful reminder of childhood when the world was vivid and secure.