Explosion at the Poem Factory

January 15, 2020
A nonsensical illustrated primer on prosody. One of the most memorable scenes in Lukoff's madcap picture-book debut, A Storytelling of Ravens, illustrated by Natalie Nelson (2018), involves hippos racing to investigate an "explosion at the cupcake factory." Here Lukoff reprises this notion of industrial-sized catastrophe, revealing in the author's note that it was inspired by a college friend's award-winning intentionally bad poem. This background helps drive the wacky poetic in-jokes adorning this inventive exploration of the mechanics of poetry as the endearing Kilmer Watts finds employment at Amalgamated Verse & Strophe, a thriving factory that ships "everything from odes to epithalamiums to markets across the land." Kilmer takes quickly to his new vocation, learning how to "operate the meter meter and empty the cliché bins," though not without the occasional mistake, resulting in some oversyllabified haikus and "several sheets of blank verse" coming out "entirely blank." Hoffmann's playfully expressive double-page illustrations feature views of sausage-shaped humans amid wild visions of cogs and wheels. They heighten Lukoff's guffaws, extending the wordplay; the enjambment machine is cleverly marked with the labels "EN / JAMB / MENT," for instance. When the forecasted factory disaster comes to pass, Kilmer finds an even better role for poetry and himself in town, providing a glimpse beyond verse's structure to its meaning. Rich backmatter on poetic structure and a glossary make this a solid reference as well. Lukoff's sophisticated silliness hits the sweet spot for lovers of wordplay. (Picture book. 6-9)

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March 16, 2020
“Why spend hours wrestling with rhymes when our prosodizer can find the perfect synonym with the flip of a switch?” Lukoff (When Aidan Became a Brother) imagines what would happen if poems were generated mechanically, in a factory. After electric pianos come to town, Kilmer leaves his position as a music teacher to take a job at the poem factory, where he learns the ins and outs of the job (“Pick a rhyme scheme, sprinkle in some similes, don’t overdo the refrains, always add alliteration”). When the factory explodes, Kilmer makes sure that the art form he has come to love survives. Hoffmann (Dirt Cheap) gives Kilmer a bowling-pin shape and a big, dramatic moustache. Acrylic, pastel, and colored pencil spreads mix industrial grays and browns and splashes of taffy pink to
portray gears, conveyor belts, levers, and a chute labeled “similes” that spits out sheets of paper (“He sat like an unturned stone”). Liberal use of terms such as
epithalmium and enjambment, both defined at book’s end, will draw precocious kids as well as adult poetry lovers to this friendly introduction to poetry and poetics. Extensive back matter gives examples of poetic forms and supplies a glossary of terms. Ages 6–9.

March 1, 2020
Grades 1-4 Kilmer Watts has spent years working in the piano factory, but when automatic pianos arrive?instruments that will play everything for you with the press of a single button?he finds himself out of a job. So off he goes to the poem factory, where they assemble all the parts of a poem and ship everything "from odes to epithalamiums to markets across the land." A few mistakes teach Kilmer to pay attention to the details, but even that can't save the day when stress and mechanical failures lead to a disaster: the poem building collapses! But even with the factory gone, people still need poems?and Kilmer knows exactly what his next job will be. The madcap story has a Dr. Seuss-like appeal, though the text, which is filled with poetry terms (enjambment, anacrusis, kenning) may confuse some readers, even with the extensive glossary and list of examples in the backmatter. Still, the illustrations are energetic and filled with movement, and as an introduction to different forms of poetry, this is certainly unique.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)