No Fair! No Fair!: And Other Jolly Poems of Childhood

Gr 2–5—Longtime contributors to The New Yorker combine their talents in this collection of rhyming poetry with ink and watercolor cartoons. Zany and humorous, the illustrations tend only to reinforce plot points, with little to no attempt to extend themes. Rare exceptions occur, such as in "The Backseat," where a brother grimaces and cringes away from his sister as she crowds him in a car's backseat. Anyone who sat in a similar position with their sibling can relate to Trillin's chant "she'll slowly, slowly, slowly start to slide/Till parts of her are clearly on my side" and will audibly groan at the wide grin spreading across his sister's face. Unfortunately, most of the other poems and artwork are not as harmonious. In "To Get a Pet," for example, a series of cartoon panels simply chart events in the poem and leave little room for imagination. Awkward repetitive phrasing, likely implemented to aid the rhyming scheme, interferes with the flow of several poems, as in "Eating Habits": "Matt loved the food most kids considered weird./Weird food from this boy's plate just disappeared." While adults may take such reverse phrasing in stride, emerging readers will struggle. Also, this title seems to be generally geared more toward boys, with nine out of 14 poems expressing male point of view through words or art.