From the Heart

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Although it looks like a small-format picture book for children, this coy and derivative collection of ``light-hearted verse'' is intended for young adults. Each cliche-ridden verse is faced by a slick commercial painting thick with heavy humor: the milk-white muzzle of a cat and pink snout of a pig are heart-shaped; the poet's ``mind's eye'' floats in a blue sky, where the bodies of two dragonflies form a segmented heart (dragonflies, we're told, ``mate on the wing!'' and then, ``when secure in their embrace, / Procreation's taking place''). Even when the tongue-in-cheek humor is obvious--``Say that you will be my mate'' says the lion who cannot hide his ``main love''--this gift book unabashedly apes the puns found in penny valentines. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-- Fifteen love poems, organized around different animals, insects, and plants. Each selection plays on the word ``heart'' in the title and/or text and is illustrated by an acrylic painting that further clarifies the subject. ``Light-Hearted,'' for instance, is accompanied by a picture of a moth hovering over the sun and concludes ``As a moth heads to the flame/ Unaware of fire,/ My heart's attracted just the same,/ Guided by desire.'' The paintings are vibrant, but the poetry is not. The word play and images are predictable. ``Warm-Hearted'' (accompanied by the painting of a big horn sheep) begins ``Sheepishly I must reveal . . . I can't pull wool over your eyes'' and ends ``And so without much more ado/ I must declare that I love ewe.'' There seems to be no reason to throw animals and love poems together--there is certainly a wealth of good, punny animal poems from Ogden Nash to J. Patrick Lewis and wonderful love poetry already in existence. Their marriage in this case is not a happy one. --Kathleen Whalin, Belfast Public Library, ME