The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

Brown, Calef

Hypnotize a Tiger: Poems About Just About Everything

138 pp. | Holt/Ottaviano | March, 2015 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8050-9928-7 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-8050-9930-0

(2) 4-6 Brown takes several conventions--such as celebration of the outlier and weird animals--and gives them fresh energy. A Greek chorus much given to puns is located along the bottom margin, where creatures comment on the poems and add their own. Brown is a superb craftsman, with jazzy rhythms and a gift for embedded rhymes. Jolie laide drawings add to the joyous mood.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015