(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Richard Jones. In free-verse poems in sections named for the four elements, former U.S. Poet ­Laureate Kooser and fellow poet Wanek use realities in their speakers' surroundings as springboards to creative observations, from imagined personalities (a fire "is never full, never satisfied") and histories (a boat has "been waiting / all summer, and maybe for thousands of years") to simple appreciation ("People who live in cities / never get to ­accidentally step / in a cow pie"). The language is both evocative and playful: a speaker on a hot day is "boiled and salted / like a peanut...the meat / in a heat sandwich, the dog in a hot." Jones's full-bleed illustrations, rendered in paint and edited digitally, are striking even in their muted colors. In an afterword, Kooser and Wanek encourage readers to pay attention to their ­imaginations--making this a perfect mentor text for students writing their own poems.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2022