Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems

Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems. J Patrick Lewis and Douglas Florian. 2014. Random House. 40 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Silly car poems. Silly futuristic car poems. J. Patrick Lewis and Douglas Florian have teamed up to bring readers delightful, over-the-top poems about automobiles. The illustrations are by Jeremy Holmes. Poems include: "Giant Bookmobile of Tomorrow," "Mini-Mini-Car," "Fish Car," "Eel-ectric Car," "Jurassic Park(ing)", "The Dragonwagon," "The Paper Car," "The Backwards Car," "High-Heel Car," "23rd-Century Motors," "Balloon Car," "Caterpillar Cab," "Bathtub Car," "The Egg Car," "Hot Dog Car," "The Sloppy-Floppy-Nonstop Jalopy," "Grass Taxi," "The Love Car," "The Banana Split Car," "The Supersonic Ionic Car," and the "Rubber-Band Car."

Without a doubt my absolute favorite is "The Giant Bookmobile of Tomorrow." This little poem is ABSOLUTELY delightful. It is just a gem of a poem, and chances are an instant favorite with librarians everywhere! There is probably a good reason why this poem is at the start! Just open it up, read it, and it might just hook you. I think it's the kind of poem that will appeal to readers even if they "don't like" poetry. The other poems, well, I'm not sure they're equally appealing to non-poetry-readers. But this one, all you have to do is LOVE books, and it's sure to delight!

Some poems are enjoyable because they are silly and playful and use language in a fun way. Some beg to be read aloud. Other poems, however, I didn't quite get as enthusiastic about. Probably the funnest poem title to read aloud is "Sloppy-Floppy-Nonstop Jalopy." I also enjoyed "Hot Dog Car" and "The Banana Split Car."

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Becky! I'm also a book/movie reviewer who's just starting out and keeping up with my blog on a weekly basis. This post has inspired me to write about and review some children's poetry books that I grew up with as a kid :) I love seeing poems for kids that have actual thought and effort put into them, instead of just a bunch of lazy rhymes that don't try to challenge children a little bit as readers.

sally said...

Hey, Becky, I tried to write to you but am not sure I had the right address. Did you get an email from me? If not, would you mind emailing me so I can write back to the proper address?