Poem Depot

November 11, 2013
Ludicrous dilemmas, oddball situations, and quirky twists of fate feature heavily in Florian’s poems, which are accompanied by his thickly scrawled b&w drawings (not all seen by PW). Instead of chapters, Florian groups his verse into the “aisles” of the eponymous store, and as the first entry explains, this collection is all about silliness and fun: “There’s laughs galore/ Inside this store/ And fun that runs for miles.” The categories are somewhat arbitrary (the poems in “Tons of Puns” use few of them, for instance), but there are still plenty of laughs to be had as Florian puts a clever spin on some traditional nursery rhymes (“Old Mother Hubbard/ Went to the cupboard/ To fetch her poor dog a bone./ But when she got there/ The cupboard was bare./ She ordered Chinese on the phone”), deploys an array of limericks and jokes-in-verse, and introduces a bevy of strange creatures: “What does a/ Baga Baga/ Dinga Donga do?/ I’m not sure, but/ There’s one behind you!” Ages 9–11.

December 15, 2013
Gifted poet and illustrator Florian (Poem Runs: Baseball Poems, 2012, etc.) here presents a chunky collection of drawings and brief poems on a host of silly subjects. Posited as a superstore of verse on assorted topics children care about--school, family, animals, food and the like--one also can't help thinking this "depot" represents a midway point for a number of poems that haven't quite reached their creative destinations. To be truly effective, light or nonsensical verse should be as tight in its poetic construction as it is loosely suggestive in metaphorical associations, and a number of the works assembled here simply read as not fully cooked. The volume's more successful poems tend to employ wordplay to elicit a chuckle or illustrate delightfully nonsensical truisms about language, as in "Insect Asides": "A dragonfly is not a fly. / It's not a dragon either. / No butter on a butterfly, / And bees cannot spell neither." Likewise, when paired well, Florian's free-form pen-and-ink drawings enhance the whimsical nature of the fanciful scenes depicted. In "Pets," a creepy drawing of a girl with hairy spiders crawling all over her face offers a convincing explanation for the accompanying poem's punch line: "Bruce has ten pet roosters. / Ben has ten pet hens. / Fran has ten tarantulas, / But not too many friends." Overall, a thick collection of humorous verse that might have been funnier with thinner ambitions. (Poetry. 9-11)

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February 1, 2014

Gr 2-5-Echoes of Shel Silverstein's brand of wit and whimsy reverberate in Florian's 170 poems. The kid-friendly selections creatively capture the quotidian comings and goings of youngsters in humorous, forward-thinking verse. Thick ink illustrations add to the look and feel of a coloring book while a simple font enhances the readability of literary comestibles sure to delight and please while augmenting developing language skills. Chapter headings include "Chortles & Chuckles," "Funny Bones & Belly Laughs," "Jests & Jives," and "Tons of Puns." The poems are brief in length and long on fun. The first selection, "Welcome," says it all: "Welcome to the Poem Depot-/Relax and stay a while./When you walk in/You'll surely grin, /And leave wearing a smile."-Magdaline Henderson-Diman, formerly at Bass Harbor Memorial Library, Bernard, ME

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2014
Grades 3-6 Florian's latest is a generous compendium of light, clever verse on a variety of topics. A long selection here is two dozen lines; a short one is just three or four. Rhythm and rhyme keep the whole volume rolling along, while the expressive artwork gives readers reasons to pause along the way. With similarly titled chapters ( Wit and Whimsy, Rib-Ticklers and Sidesplitters ), the arrangement of selections often seems random, though poems based on nursery rhymes or familiar sayings, for instance, are often grouped together. Although not every book of poems is enhanced by illustrations, Florian's bold, black line drawings ramp up the verbal humor and complete the pages visually without overwhelming the words. The occasional verse suggests an adult perspective, but most selections arise clearly from a child's point of view. With a strong thread of wordplay, the poems will amuse children while also challenging them to think, making this an appealing source of short verse to memorize and an enjoyable collection of poetry to read just for fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)