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Douglas Florian is just a joy to read, his unstoppable imagination and fantastical drawings provocative for children and adults alike. I enter Florian’s world expecting virtually anything and am predictably rewarded for my trouble. Anyone who can bend, staple and mutilate language, turning the alphabet into a magic kingdom is a poet to follow, a merry pied piper leading to wild adventures. Typically tongue-in-cheek, the back cover issues the challenge:
This book is filled
With brilliant verse.
Some are lengthy.
Some are terse.
Some are ingenious.
Some are outrageous.
But you won’t get to any
If you don’t turn the pages.
But the first poem brings me up short, its quirky truth reminding me not to underestimate this poet:
First things first.
Last things last.
Hours
Pass
Slowly.
Years pass fast.
(“First”)
Then back to silliness, meant to elicit children’s giddiness and giggles, or Florian’s trademark verse that rocks and rolls to its own happy beat:
A monster made its very home
Inside the middle of this poem.
The monster loved to gobble words -
Of this poem it ate two-thirds.
(“Monster Home”)
The perfect nonsense to share with a child learning to read, these poems are riddled with alliteration and rhyme, an improbable ride in a land where anything is possible.
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Bing Bang Boing: Poems and Drawings