BookSpeak!

Gr 3—5—Some of these 21 poems are written in rhyme and meter, while others are free verse. They vary in length from a few to several stanzas, and all are well crafted and clever, covering a variety of aspects of books and reading. Salas includes poems about an index, a cover, cliff-hangers, and falling asleep while reading. The poems are, by turns, philosophical, humorous, and even instructional. Typeset is creative, and the titles appear in a variety of artistic font styles and colors. Whimsical, mixed-media illustrations grace every page. Bisaillon skillfully incorporates the printed poems into the artwork so that the words and images have a single, unified, visual effect. This is an appealing offering that will be especially popular with librarians. For a collection of "book" poems by a variety of authors, Lee Bennett Hopkins's I Am the Book (Holiday House, 2011) is also a good choice.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT