Jack Prelutsky is back with 100 brand-new poems. I was so excited when I got my hands on this book because I have really enjoyed his poetry collections in the past like A PIZZA THE SIZE OF THE SUN, THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK, and THE DRAGONS ARE SINGING TONIGHT. But, it didn’t take long for me to realize that HIPPO just isn’t the same quality as his past work.
Part of it might be the illustrations. This time he is joined by Jackie Urbanovic. The harsh, black and white illustrations look sloppy, so much so that I wondered if they were just preliminary since I had an ARC. I’ll definitely check to see when the book is released this month just to make sure. The other books of Prelutsky’s I mentioned, PIZZA and NEW KID, were illustrated by James Stephenson and DRAGONS was illustrated by Peter Sis.
The poems themselves weren’t that impressive either. In the middle of the book there is a series of 6 poems written in haiku that don’t fit with his normal style. There isn’t any explanation for these poems and for kids it might just seem weird. My favorite poem is “Short Song of the Hungry Bookworm.”
I love books. Yes, I love books.
Oh books, it’s hard to beat you.
I give you long and loving looks,
And then I slowly eat you.
I think the reason I like this one so much, besides the subject matter, is the fact that the rhythm is very easy to find.
There is another one called “I Can Yo-Yo” that is really clever too.
I’m anxious to see what other people think about this one.
