Customer Reviews

bow wow meow meow: it's rhyming cats and dogs

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This clever collection of 21 dog and cat ditties by children's poet Douglas Florian is one of his best yet - how does he do it?! To be as talented an author as an illustrator is a double blessing for readers of this hilarious new collection. From the subtitle " It's rhyming cats and dogs", to the shape poetry detail of the dalmatian and poodle poems, this consistently funny and original look at cats and dogs is as appealing to this adult reader as it is to younger listeners. A must-have for parent and child reading together and laughing times, even if you're not a pet owner!

As always, Mr. Florian writes and illustrates poetry on a young child's level. His poetry is short and to the point, and his illustrations are extremely creative. "The Poodles" and "The Dalmatian" is a great example of utilizing the features of the animal in the poem format. Mr. Florian gets young children excited about poetry and shows them that poetry can be uncomplicated and fun.

I'm hooked on Douglas Florian now. I have a 5 year old and teach college-level literature, and I find that it's really hard to find contemporary poetry for kids that isn't pseudo-deep or self-consciously wacky (I am not a fan of Shel Silverstein, needless to say). These poems are dry, witty, and well-turned.

My 5-year-old granddaughter had me read it over and over. Now she quotes it. I think she has the whole thing memorized.

Hi! You can call me StoryMaker. Bow Wow Meow Meow is a great and unique poem book that focuses on cats, dogs, and their relatives. When we got it from the library, it was a much darker pink then it is in the Amazon.com photo. I memorized many poems in it. There are great illustrations and on the back, you will probably see two paintings, one of a cat and one of the dog. If you look closely, the dog has the word "cat" written on it and the cat has the word "dog" on it. An example of one of the poems is:

"Who always yanks the tail of the Manx?"

Short poem, isn't it? Here's another short one:

"Why ocelots have lots of spots puzzles oc-elot."

Don't worry, that's not as long as they get. For example, "Dog Log" is much longer, therefore I haven't memorized it. Great poems and lots of humor, too. However, I do not like how they insult bulldogs in their bulldog poem. Everyone is giving bulldogs a bad reputation because long ago bulldogs held on to bull's noses and were swung around. Bulldogs are nicer nowadays. Overall, a nice poem book all about pets, wolves, and every type of wild cat. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

As always, Mr. Florian writes and illustrates poetry on a young child's level. His poetry is short and to the point, and his illustrations are extremely creative. "The Poodles" and "The Dalmatian" is a great example of utilizing the features of the animal in the poem format. Mr. Florian gets young children excited about poetry and shows them that poetry can be uncomplicated and fun.

Poet and painter Douglas Florian barks up the right tree in the young people poetry month release, "Bow Wow Meow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs." Twenty-one brief, humorous poems about a kennel of dog and cat varieties playfully prowl its pages, accompanied by childlike watercolor portraits of each species being analyzed in verse. (Another quirky pleasure comes from the fact that Florian's loose, playful watercolors were painted on primed brown paper bags with bits of collage.) Setting the stage for the book's first half is "Dog Log" with its deadpan "to do" list of the average dog: "Rolled out of bed./ Scratched my head./ Brought the mail./ Wagged my tail.../ Chewed a shoe --/ Table, too." The next ten spreads all focus on a different doggie from the bulldog to wolf. Typical is "The Chihuahua" which manages to hilariously evoke the sound of the little beast: "Chihuahua seems a sorry sight:/ So small in stature, weight, and height./ But it can bark a brouhaha: / Chi-hua! hua! hua! hua! hua! hua! hua!" Segregating the cats from the dogs, the second half is devoted to the felines, starting with the lilting "Cat Chat" introduction, and ends with "The Black Panther": "Black on black / With big eyes green --- / At night the panther's sight is keen,/ A stalking shadow, sly and sleek,/ That every night plays hide-and-seek." As a poetry collection, this is the best-conceived, least-pretentious and most-fun work in years. The idea is simplicity at its best, perfectly conceived and cleverly executed with a just-right balance of smarts and playfulness. The witty, insightful nature of the poems is sure to delight all ages, particularly fans of ee cummings, Ogden Nash and Bennett Cerf. Even concrete poetry admirers will pleasantly note the subtly original ways in which simple type layouts are occasionally used to enhance the rhythms and rhymes, such as the lines of "The Poodles" which are each set in a tight swirl, mimicking their subject's "oodles and oodles or curls." Doggone good. To borrow a pun from Florian, it would "puzzle ocelot" if this didn't end up an award-winner by year's end.