Noisy Poems for a Busy Day

October 1, 2012
In light, joyful poems, Heidbreeder explores simple childhood experiences, taking readers from morning (“Riffle-
rustle,/ feed down-pound./ Another day/ has rolled around”) to bedtime (“Chitter-chatter./ Monkey-tricks./ Fall asleep/ in three quick ticks”). Smith’s digitally colored pencil drawings feature children with oversize heads and puny limbs at play, at rest, and at the dinner table (manners and playing nicely pop up as poem topics). The bite-size length of the poems, frequent use of evocative onomatopoeia, and inviting imagery add up to an accessible and entertaining collection for preschoolers. Ages 3–7.

August 1, 2012
Thirty poetic firecrackers chronicle a young child's day. Combining themes that worked well in the popular Crocodiles Say... (2005) and Crocodiles Play! (2009, both illustrated by Rae Mate), here Heidbreder joins forces with illustrator Smith to capture children at their most active and carefree as they go about their routines from dawn to bedtime. Together, these Canadian creators paint a warm portrait of suburban daily life, with kids enjoying their friends, siblings, pets, sunshine--all the basic pleasures of the moment. Heidbreder's five-line sonic bursts, such as "Now Back Down," are generally not contemplative poems but employ tight trochaic dimeter and trimeter to underscore the joy to be had in getting out in the world and exploring: "Bummy-wiggle. / Slip-down...THUD! / Gurpy-slurpy. / Hello, mud! / Plop!" And Smith's simple, retro illustrations, rendered in pencil and colored digitally, ably depict the action of various scenes, using bold colors and spare facial expressions to show children, pets and yard animals like rabbits and birds at play. Notably absent from these illustrations are adults, whose influence is only subtly felt, as providers of a picnic or dinnertime spread, or heard in reconciling a playground spat or lending behavioral suggestions (especially regarding table manners). While in no way pushing the creative envelope, this light-verse picture book still has much to offer pre-readers looking for affirmation of what constitutes a full day of fun. (Picture book/poetry. 3-7)

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October 1, 2012

PreS-Gr 3-Heidbreder knows his audience and how to prompt a gush of giggles and tickles from young children. Just five terse lines distill a moment of a young child's day, from waking up, getting out of bed, to watching clouds, those "Puffy stuffies, /dragon drifters, /dueling dogs-/sky shape-shifters" to getting into bed at day's end. There's plenty of onomatopoeia at its silliest: "Slip-slap-lick" is the first line of "Doggie Hi," and "Into PJs" begins, "Giggle-wiggle./Jump-in jiggle." In support of early literacy, the poems offer a sequenced narrative as well as their own "noise" that children can perform and memorize: "Giggle-wiggle./Jump-in jiggle./PJs backward-/twisty-twiggle." Cartoon, mixed-media depictions of each moment add humor and appeal. The children seem to float with their bubblelike, very round, cheery heads and simplified bodies. There's a lightness and ease to the drawings and plenty of white space with an eye to negative space and design. This is a well-conceived and executed book that would pair nicely with Loris Lesynski's Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten (Annick, 2004).-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2012
Preschool-G Canadian children's poet Heidbreder has composed 30 short, zippy poems that move through the day, from waking up to past bedtime and into dreaming. Each poem highlights an especially noisy or funny activity or mishap (like getting your undies on backward). Heidbreder specializes in sound effects: sloppy slurp for eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner; glurpy-slurpy for playing in mud; splish splosh rub for playing in the bathtub; and, for petting a cat, Pat the cat / mauw-mew-purr. / Snuggle-huggle / in its fur. / Soft! Some descriptions may be over some kids' heads but could provoke deeper thoughts in others: clouds are sky shape-shifters, and a puppy's play is tumble-swerve. Smith's primary-color illustrations, highlighted in rough pencil, are a bit odd for a book all about noise, as the cartoon kids sport minuscule U-shaped mouths and huge blank jaws. But the kids' skinny, twisty arms and legs convey plenty of liveliness throughout.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
"Riffle-rustle, / feet down-pound. / Another day / has rolled around! / Yeah!" Thirty short poems follow kids through a day: from early morning routine to a romp in the "gurpy-slurpy" mud to a squabble at the park to nighttime "dazzle-dreams." Pencil and digitally colored illustrations add clever, delightful details, but the similarly patterned poems' repetitive over-hyphenation grows tedious.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)