(4) 4-6 Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Evoking blues music through theme and sometimes rhythm, Adoff's sixty free-verse poems, idiosyncratically punctuated and spaced, flow easily. There's not much variety to the pieces: the subject is African American life, the imagery largely rural and Southern. Dignified scenes by Christie don't illustrate the book, exactly, but they give it some welcome contrast. The lack of table of contents and index is frustrating.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully. McCully has completely redesigned and re-illustrated this new edition, and it both gains and loses in the process. The size of the book has almost doubled, so that the intimate feeling of the text is less apparent, but the full-color paintings of an interracial family going about its daily business are warm and joyful.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Joe Cepeda. Irving the dog and Ermine the cat play traditional pet roles during the day, but at night they transform themselves into sword-wielding, crook-catching Daring Dog and Captain Cat. Adoff's "shaped speech" is well suited to a tale that is both vigorous and dreamlike. The flattened perspective of the textured oil illustrations captures the mysterious nighttime atmosphere as well as the antics of the heroes.

Reviewer: CHristine Sarrazin

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Michael Weaver. Adoff invites young basketball fans to come play the game of poetry in this collection of twenty-eight poems. The "shaped speech" format of the poems mirrors the action of the sport, and Weaver's soft yet energetic illustrations match the swirl of emotions in the poems. Commendably, all basketball players are included: girls, boys, and wheelchair athletes.

Reviewer: Charlotte S. Huck

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Catherine Deeter. After two dogs, Rex and Ethel, die on the very same afternoon, their young owners, friends and next-door neighbors, build a safe haven for wild animals as a memorial to them. Although the lyrical text uses poetic phrases (the girls share "moments of red apples"), it lacks emotion, and the coincidence of the dogs dying at the same time seems far-fetched. Realistic acrylic paintings depict the multiracial neighborhood.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Lisa Desimini. This lively, colorful book of poems about itches, walks in the mud, the fuzz on a peach, the drip of an ice cream cone, sitting in a bathtub, and playing in the snow are complemented and extended by mixed-media collages. Adoff's solid imagery and unique punctuation and spacing add to the enjoyment of this book as poetry and art. This is a good choice for reading aloud and for inspiring students to write their own poems.

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