The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

Brown, Calef

Up Verses Down: Poems, Paintings, and Serious Nonsense

80 pp. | Holt/Ottaviano | June, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8050-9929-4 $19.99

(2) K-3 Brown (Soup for Breakfast; Hypnotize a Tiger) presents poems categorized by subject, e.g., "People Are People"; "Foodstuffs"; and "Sleepy Time." Brown's poetry here is mostly free-flowing, though still full of clever rhymes and wordplay. His signature color-saturated acrylic-and-gouache paintings are as absurd as ever, but with the added realistic element of a diverse human cast. A collection that sends the message that language is there for creative play.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2019