<i>What's the Weather Inside?</i> (review)
2009; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 62; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.0.0874
ISSN1558-6766
Autores ResumoReviewed by: What's the Weather Inside? Deborah Stevenson Wilson, Karma What's the Weather Inside?; illus. by Barry Blitt. McElderry, 2009 [176p] ISBN 978-1-4169-7666-0$17.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 2-4 Author Wilson, best known for her picture books (Sleepyhead, BCCB 11/06), turns here to poetry in this collection of nearly ten dozen poems. Compact rhymed verses address subjects that range school to home and pets to monsters and run the gamut from realistic to conceptual to sheerly silly. Some of the most successful poems are those that draw on classic rhymes or folktales ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel/ Don't be a dope/ Cut off your hair/ And make your own rope"), while others offer [End Page 383] lighthearted humor and general accessibility. Overall, though, the verse is bland and sweetly cute rather than fresh: the poems generally simply stop rather than reaching a climactic punch line or finishing kick, and they're sometimes tediously imbued with message, while syntax is occasionally awkwardly forced for the sake of reaching the end rhyme. Blitt's illustrative line drawings offer a very different tone in their appealing, slightly uneasy weirdness; they seem to combine a touch of Tenniel, a touch of Lear, and a touch of Lynda Barry, and though they may be more sophisticated than the guileless text, they'll add interest for youngsters hoping for something with a bit of spice. This isn't in the same league as Florian and Prelutsky, but it does offer some cheerful expansion of the poetry possibilities. An index of titles and an index of first lines are appended. Copyright © 2009 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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