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Ode, Eric

Stop That Poem!

32 pp. | Kane Miller | September, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-68464-223-6 $14.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jieting Chen. A child stacks rectangles, each with one word printed on it (reminiscent of magnetic poetry), atop a wagon. When the stack gets too tall, the wind carries the rectangles away, and they become more fluid-looking--but still readable, as the child and friends chase the rectangles through a field and lake, gather them on a clothesline, despair as a dog carries that clothesline away, and so forth. A few speech bubbles provide dialogue, but most of the text is composed of an evolving poem about evolving poems: "A poem might / jump up / take flight / climb higher and higher / then settle like / birds on a wire." Chen's illustrations, in muted colors punctuated with bright orange, show the poem constantly propelled forward across landscapes while a growing, diverse cast of children gets involved. Aspiring poets should be encouraged in their creativity by this lilting "ode" (pun on the author's name intended) to the challenge and joy of getting a poem just right.
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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