Customer Reviews

The Paper Doorway: Funny Verse and Nothing Worse

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My daughter, Rachel, and I got a kick out of the adventurous Oddkins about animated toys on the loose one dark and dreary night. We laughed until milk came out of our noses when we read the frightfully funny tale, Santa's Twin about an imposter Santa who leaves obnoxious things like snot in kids' stockings. In Rachel's opinion the more obnoxious, the better. So we were excited about the release of The Paper Doorway. Her favorite poem is Peg-Leg Zeg about a pirate who loves picking at crocodiles and subsequently gets several appendages eaten. What can I say, the kid has a weird sense of humor which, I suspect, she inherited from me! My personal favorite is A Cure For Ugly about a man who was horribly disfigured on the outside, but beautiful on the inside. What a wonderful way for collaborators, Koontz and Parks to get across the fact that books are the doorway to a kid's imagination and so much more. Dean's rhymes were exceptionally witty at times and poignant at others. Phil's illustrations beautifully complemented Dean's words. They're a winning team as evidenced by their long association, and the quality of their latest project, The Paper Doorway. Wholly delightful!

I was taken by surprise to see a book of children's poetry written by Dean Koontz sitting on the poetry shelf of my local book store. His reputation is not from writing children's literature. I fould this book to be a wonderful collection of poems that are entertaining, easy to read, and cleverly written. Illustrations also help to make the poems come alive for the reader. A few of my favorite poems are The Paper Doorway (title poem), Plurals, and Do Trees Sneeze?

Pros:
Great Poems
Great Illustrations
Great hiding of the mice.
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Cons
There aren't any

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They hid a mouse in every picture and out of the ninety-something pictures i found all but four.... but it took me a long time.

The Man With Four Eyes (my favourite poem)

I knew a man who had four eyes.
He claimed to be so very wise.
Two eyes in the back of his head
Closed only when he went to bed.
He saw ahead, he saw behind-
This, he said improved his mind.
His claim I don't mean to deride
But the bus that hit him came from the side.

I recently gave my 12 year old son the assignment to reflect on poetry that he had recently read. His response was that he could not do the assignment, as he did not like poetry and had never really read any poetry.

My response to him went something like this "but you love poetry, and you recently were telling me about all the great little `stories' you were reading in your Dean Koontz book."

His response "That's not poetry, I liked that book. It was full of funny little stories."

We had a long discussion after about how poetry takes on many forms and brings many different emotions. The emotions that were felt with Koontz's poetry made my son feel happy. All poetry is not like that and my son did later admit he enjoys poetry, especially Koontz's poetry.

"The Paper Doorway" is filled with humorous, whimsical poetry for children of all ages. There are wonderful illustrations on nearly each page and each illustration contains a mouse for your child to find.

This is a must have book for all young readers which will expose them to the joys of poetry.

When I heard about The Paper Doorway I thought Dean Koontz had had a midlife crisis or something and decided to start writing children's books, but apparently this is his second delving into the world of the littleluns, having published another children's book, Santa's Twin. And now he brings us this ditty, wonderfully illustrated by Phil Sparks, as you are taken into a world that has a different dimension on every page, approaching the scary and horrific in places, but then jumping back to the humorous and plain zany!

The Monstrous Broccoli Excuse

You see, I don't like broccoli.
And broccoli does not like me.
It crawls into my room at night
Giving me a monstrous fright.

It scratches at the closet door,
Slithers-rustles across the floor.
This vegetable terminator
Has escaped the refrigerator.

This isn't merely in my head.
It is really there under my bed.
Oh, Mom, how can I eat, you see,
A fearsome food that would eat me?

Originally published on April 1st 2002.

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I'm a big fan of Koontz and also buy all of his childrens' books. This book is contains crazy and funny poems which will delight every kid, young or otherwise. Phil Parks' drawings add an extra dimension to the 'funny verse'.
(I'm positive that there aren't mice in all the pictures!)

Some of the ideas for these poems are whimsical and cute. However, I mourn for the lost art of versification in this country. Koontz may be a good novelist, but if he writes a line of verse that scans, it's probably by accident. The rules of prosody aren't terribly hard to learn -- why is no one bothering with them any more? Worst of all, why doesn't anybody care?

Ah well. Koontz is trying to be the next Shel Silverstein, but Shel knew how to write a line that sings. Koontz doesn't.