Wise Up! Wise Down!

December 15, 2024
Sallies and responses in verse make up a dialogue between two poets living on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Many of the paired poems here have previously appeared in separate collections, but all are well integrated into this new work. Following introductory squibs ("I'm John Agard. / I'm supposed to be a poet." "Be on your guard with Agard, / and with Lawson, use caution"), the two exchange pithy, usually lighthearted observations on multiple themes from hats to fingers, pigeons to silly pets. Though Agard's love story of a cow and a cat prefaces Lawson's tale of a romance between an octopus and a seahorse, the connections are seldom so direct; Agard refers to "Salt" in one poem, for instance, and Lawson writes of "Peppercorn." Similarly, Lawson's cautionary tale of what happened when Humpty Dumpty took refuge under a chicken leads Agard to reflect on nature vs. nurture: "Was it a little gene / that caused Jack Sprat / to eat no fat / and his wife to eat no lean?" Kitamura opens with caricatures of the two authors, then goes on to add generally tongue-in-cheek monochrome images of relevant animals, human figures with paper-white skin, decorative bits of abstract patterns, or informally drawn spot items. A page of suggested activities at the end invites readers intrigued by this interplay of poems, pictures, and ideas to create similar conversations with their own words or pictures. Stimulating exchanges, often veering off in unexpected directions.(Poetry. 7-11)

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January 10, 2025

Gr 1-5-Two poets take turns writing poems that are accompanied by charmingly childlike line drawings. Some of the poems are philosophical, as in "Questions": "If I lie/ on a page/ am I a word?/ If I hang/ from a branch/ am I a fruit?...O, answers/ are folly/ when questions bring bliss./ Without questions, can I exist?" Most of the works, however, have forced rhymes and baffling endings, mostly due to wordplay. For instance, in "DJ Ghost," the narrator is a ghost at a disco until the last few lines: "Wicked crucial and all that yo!/ We skeletons have a swinging nightlife/ (in case you didn't know)./ Yeah, when we skeletons hit the dance floor, / bet you'd wish you were nothing but bone." Some of the poems are clearly about politics-to a young audience, these verses will be head-scratchers. Although the artwork is whimsical, with lively illustrations of animals, many of the drawings are of kooky adults. Back matter includes poetry-writing ideas, such as writing back and forth with a friend, copying the style of a poem in one's own words, and writing a poem in response to a picture. VERDICT From mediocre verses about literary characters and politics to consistently shoddy rhymes, this poetry collection is an optional purchase. For updating children's collections, stick with Chris Harris's engaging poetry titles.-Elaine Fultz

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March 1, 2025
Grades 3-6 Agard, a Guyanese poet now residing in Great Britain, and Canadian poet Lawson create an amusing dialogue of sorts through mostly rhyming and nonsense poems on wide-ranging topics. Different fonts and Agard's and Lawson's initials identify the creator of each poem. In "Man with the Hat," for instance, Agard jests through rhyme that he keeps his hat on until bedtime: "Only when I sleep / in my bed at night / do I take off my hat / to give my dreams / room for flight." In "The Hat," Lawson responds in free verse on what may happen to a hat over time: "If nobody wears it for a long time, / the hat starts having thoughts of its own." Throughout the silliness, however, there's also a deeper wisdom and existential pondering, such as when Lawson considers the impact of time with the simple yet poignant line "Your life is time's gift to you." Kitamura's loosely drawn and delightfully odd illustrations lend cohesion to the celebrated poets' exchanges. The collection concludes with creative ways young readers, too, can respond to poetry.

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