The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

Shapiro, Karen Jo , Shapiro, Karen Jo

Because I Could Not Stop My Bike: And Other Poems

32 pp. | Whispering | July, 2003 | Trade ISBN 1-58089-035-0 $$15.95

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Matt Faulkner & Matt Faulkner. Twenty-six clever parodies of classic poems by Shakespeare, Dickinson, and others ably retain the rhythm and meter of the originals: e.g., "Macaroni and Cheese," a riff on Poe's "Annabel Lee," begins, "It was many and many a week ago / that I and my sister Louise / first tried out a food that you might know / called macaroni and cheese." Faulkner's spirited illustrations suit the lighthearted transmogrifications.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute