(3) 4-6 Published with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Looking at a work of art can produce a range of emotions and reactions," writes editor Hopkins in the introduction to this book of commissioned poems, each reacting to a work of art from the Met. A laudable diversity of poets and artists (bios appended)--as well as a range of poetic and artistic styles--are represented in this handsome volume for middle graders and up. Ind.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(2) K-3 I Can Read Book series. Illustrated by Barry Gott. Nineteen dinosaur poems plus a pronunciation guide to dinosaur names make up this easy reader collection; as promised in the subtitle, the pieces poke a little dino-fun. Gott's paintings exaggerate the animals comically, giving the prehistoric critters a variety of bright colors and showing their disparate sizes. Even non-dino-fans will enjoy the humor of these creatures set amidst ordinary modern life.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2011

(3) K-3 I Can Read Book series. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa. Twenty poems, with a good balance of free and formal verse, celebrate such school motifs as the bus driver, the class hamster, the school play, and even the backpack: "Zip it up. Off I ride, / everything I need inside..." Lighthearted but intensely colored illustrations support the poems, each of which gets its own double-page spread. Ind.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. A useful, attractive compendium of poetry and facts celebrating holidays, inventions, famous people, historical events, and, mostly, poets. Whatever the subject, Hopkins offers an appropriate poem--for Mother's Day, for instance, Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"; for Edward Lear's birthday, two limericks. A spacious design accommodates the disparate elements; Alcorn's illustrations, though large and cheerful, don't overwhelm the poems. Ind.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Wolf Erlbruch. Fourteen poems speak to childhood's darker side: how it feels when a friend moves away, or a pet dies, or you miss the ball in a big game. The first-person poems make it easy to identify with the situations and emotions. The child-centered illustrations effectively use expanses of space to convey the isolation of the narrator, or the immenseness of his or her feelings.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2005

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. These fourteen animal poems accent the creatures' physicality. On each double-page spread, a decorative frame encases a woodblock print of an animal, barely containing its aliveness. The changing typography's font size and shape further dramatize these beings. Despite the verbal muscularity of many of the contemporary poems, it is Alcorn's powerful visual imagery that binds together this striking tribute to the grandeur of nature's creatures.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2002