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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another fun read/look, March 21, 2005
This review is from: zoo's who (Hardcover)
Again, my son and I both got a kick out of the poems on a menagerie of beasts -- funny and clever wordplay and a cool assortment of animals, too. The poem The Ant was a big fave for us both, making my son start looking for the word "ant" in EVERYTHING. And,if the poems and pictures weren't enough, at the back of the book, there's a little paragraph about how the illustrations were made. We then had to go back through every picture to find various items that are part of the collages (and we still haven't found any candy wrappers). A lot of fun for us....
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A review of a sort., September 18, 2005
This review is from: zoo's who (Hardcover)
No one can accuse poet Douglas Florian of being uninterested in the public opinion of his work. Mr. Florian is one of the few relatively well-known children's writers out there who, by his own hand and without any interference on my part, was kind enough to ask me to review his book, "zoo's who" by e-mail. I, a lowly Amazon.com reviewer, was somewhat amazed to receive his request (all the more so when I noticed that it was written in brightly colored verse). I was reluctant initially, a reluctance that increased tenfold when I opened my most recent issue of School Library Journal and found that Mr. Florian had written a letter taking an SLJ reviewer to task for a) Incorrectly writing the title of his book with capital letters and b) not properly spacing the letters in his poem, "The Slugs", thereby nixing the point of the work. The fact that the review was a positive one did not stop Mr. Florian from his critique. Now I tend to write reviews of children's books with only the vaguest sense that the author may, at some time, care what I've written. I have never received an angry e-mail from someone like Carmen Agry Deedy for my review of her gawdawful, "The Yellow Star" or from Marcus Pfister for his lamentable, "Rainbow Fish". But then, I've never known for a fact that the author has or would, at some point, read what I've written. So do I shrink from my responsibilities and refuse to review this book simply because I can't write three words without wondering if they are "nice"? Do I shy away from this momentous occasion and leave the reviewing to somebody else? No sir! Onward I revieweth! It helps that I liked the book too. Before you begin to sneer at me and say to yourself, "Well of COURSE she's not going to give the book a bad review (the coward)", I would like to note that Florian's books are of a very specific breed. They are not going to appeal to every child of every persuasion. The nine-year-old who fills their shelves with Shel Silverstein and (to a lesser extent) Jack Prelutsky is not going to immediately find a Florian unless directed to do so. Mr. Florian is, to his credit, not one of those numerous Silverstein knock-offs you stumble over in the poetry section of the library room. The man goes for grander visions. Big sweeping pictures that involve watercolor, gouache, colored pencils, inks, tin foil, candy wrappers (I'm not making this up, you know), shredded papers, stencils, rubber stamps, and (to quote the book's back page), "much collage on primed brown paper bags". The results are these ambitious animalian dreamscapes where the poems are merely half the final product. Quite frankly, I incline more towards poetry books like, "If Not For the Cat", but I can definitely see Florian's appeal. If you've read a Florian before than you know what to expect. In this book we are treated to twenty-one poems of various wild creatures. Everything from lowly insects, to man-eating sharks, to sleepy creeping sloths have their moment in the sun here. It takes a while to get into the book, but once you do it's increasingly amusing. Not laugh-your-socks-off amusing. More mildly-chuckle-and-then-ponder-the-truth-in-the-writing amusing. Some poems are plays on words. The poem, "The Ant", consists of four panicked lines that read simply, "I wANTed to write / A poem on an ANT / I'm frANTic- / I cAN'T". I won't even repeat the lines in the poem "The Terns" except to say that it's a groaner of a pun. By the end, you find you've met a wide variety of critters in a surprising variety of ways. To my mind, Mr. Florian is at his best when he goes for something with a little atmosphere to it. My favorite poem out of the bunch is, without question, "The Owl". On the left-hand page are sixteen yellow pairs of eyes huddled on the floor of a deep dark forest. Above them, glowing far larger are almost hypnotic peepers of a creature who proclaims, "I am the eyes / And ears of night / The say I'm wise - / I say they're right". You'll find yourself in shivers just staring at the inky blue/blackness of the picture for minutes on end. You'll also find yourself returning to it. Will kids like this book? Doggone it if I know. I think that Mr. Florian's books work particularly well as writing exercises in schools and classrooms. The teacher reads a bunch of his poems aloud (turning and twisting the books as necessary) then encourages the kids to write their own wild kingdom prose and pictures in his style. Children do not, by and large, seek out poetry on their own unless they are looking for something silly. Nevertheless, I suspect that in many households this book will be much beloved (and certain poems favored over others) for years and years to come. A lovely offering and some unique takes. .... and.... we're done.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tempting menagerie, March 26, 2005
This review is from: zoo's who (Hardcover)
In one of his most artful surprises yet, Douglas Florian has created another delightful, spine-tingling gaggle of animals, the usual tongue-twisting, alliterative troupe: the manta ray, the penguin, the bush baby, the bats, the slugs, the terns, the wallaby and, my favorite, the sloth: "Up a tree you slowly creep, The twenty hours straight you sleep." The artwork in this latest collection is superior, art-iculate and gaily colored, sure to inspire young minds with fanciful thoughts, even singing the praises of the slug: "Slugs are ugly. Slugs are lowly. Slugs climb mountains Very slowly." These simple poems alongside such quirky critters that leap from Florian's mind offer a world of adventure, a humorous peak into the lives of creatures great and small. With consummate skill, Florian has combined whimsy with some remarkable artwork, a book sure to be beloved of children and adults alike. If you're like me, you know a few "grownups" who will appreciate the wonderful illustrations in zoo's who. Who says we have to grow up anyway? "I wANTed to write A poem on an ANT. I'm frANTic- I cANT." Luan Gaines/2005.
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