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Overview
I
am
a
nee
dle
of
steel
glass &
cement
102
stories
high on a clear
day you can see
200
miles out into the
Atlantic or watch
hundreds of ants
scurrying like
people on the sidewalks
below & the yellow
bugs racing recklessly
along the city streets &
ride the elevator all the
way down in 37 seconds
FLAT
A collection of poems each of which appears on the page in the shape of its subject so that the poem looks like whatever it's about.
Synopsis
am
a
nee
dle
of
steel
glass &
cement
102
stories
high on a clear
day you can see
200
miles out into the
Atlantic or watch
hundreds of ants
scurrying like
people on the sidewalks
below & the yellow
bugs racing recklessly
along the city streets &
ride the elevator all the
way down in 37 seconds
FLAT
Publishers Weekly
From endpaper to doodled endpaper, this mix of clever language and visual delights makes a dandy treat for all ages. Desimini's (Love Letters) mixed-media illustrations and Lewis's (A Hippopotamusn't) inventive poems converge in a single work stronger than either would be independent of the other. The interplay between words and pictures effectively conjures images from seasons to sports to the jungle. In "Lashondra Scores!" each line of the poem includes a word with the letter "O," which Desimini transforms into a basketball, creating an arc of text that follows the ball from Lashondra's hand to its eventual swish through the hoop. In another, the trunk of a weeping willow tree tells of a widow weeping, while its branches trail gracefully down, each containing the refrain, "Her wind-woven hair softly sweeping." The shape of a yellow-brown giraffe takes form against a background of forest green leaves in a concrete poem, "Giraffe": the words tail and stilts literally form the animal's corresponding anatomy as he "turns tail and hobbles away on wooden stilts." This lively and outstanding collection, reflecting a wide emotional range, will intrigue young artists and wordsmiths with its surprising use of color and unexpected wordplay. Ages 3-8. (Sept.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
From endpaper to doodled endpaper, this mix of clever language and visual delights makes a dandy treat for all ages. Desimini's (Love Letters) mixed-media illustrations and Lewis's (A Hippopotamusn't) inventive poems converge in a single work stronger than either would be independent of the other. The interplay between words and pictures effectively conjures images from seasons to sports to the jungle. In "Lashondra Scores!" each line of the poem includes a word with the letter "O," which Desimini transforms into a basketball, creating an arc of text that follows the ball from Lashondra's hand to its eventual swish through the hoop. In another, the trunk of a weeping willow tree tells of a widow weeping, while its branches trail gracefully down, each containing the refrain, "Her wind-woven hair softly sweeping." The shape of a yellow-brown giraffe takes form against a background of forest green leaves in a concrete poem, "Giraffe": the words tail and stilts literally form the animal's corresponding anatomy as he "turns tail and hobbles away on wooden stilts." This lively and outstanding collection, reflecting a wide emotional range, will intrigue young artists and wordsmiths with its surprising use of color and unexpected wordplay. Ages 3-8. (Sept.)Publishers Weekly
In a starred review, PW said of this collection of short poems, "The interplay between words and pictures effectively conjures images from seasons, to sports, to the jungle. From endpaper to doodled endpaper, this mix of clever language and visual delights makes a dandy treat for all ages." Ages 3-8. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.Children's Literature
Words and pictures come together to create the shaped poems in Doodle Dandies. In this exuberant treat for ear and eye, poet J. Patrick Lewis and illustrator Lisa Desimini bring young readers a towering skyscraper, slithering snake and copiously weeping willow. The mirror poem is a mirror image. No material seems too ordinary for Desimini to incorporate into her mixed media artwork. In one illustration, rice-grain rain falls upon real dirt. In another, baseballs nestle on artificial turf. Kids will have a great time examining these dandies to see how words and artistic materials can literally shape a poem. 1998, Aladdin/Simon and Schuster,— Mary Quattlebaum