POETRY FRIDAY Animal Poems by Valerie Worth

Animal Poems
Written by Valerie Worth; illustrated by Steve Jenkins
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux

reviewed by Ilene Goldman

The multimedia porcupine on the front of Animal Poems is actually cuddly-looking, inviting the reader into this collection of poetry with his direct gaze and slight smile.  Each illustration begs us to turn the page to find the collage Jenkins has concocted for the next poem. A penguin with pitch black feathers waddles on homemade ice-paper; an elephant whose wrinkled skin looks like crumpled, ironed paper trundles across a page; and a fuzzy-legged spider weaves her delicate web.  You’ll look again and again.

The late Valerie Worth’s poems are as deep and resonant as the images, but not as fanciful. This is a collection of free verse, not rhyming poetry; Worth's words evoke the essence of each animal without anthropomorphizing or imparting endearing traits.

We understand the dichotomy between a bear’s sweet looks and fearsome personality: “The bear’s fur / Is gentle but / His eye is not: / It burns our /Way, while / He walks right /” We hear right away that the bear on this page is not our teddy bear, not cuddly, not the bear of countless toddlers’ tales.  We feel the snake slithering,  “Loosed / From / Limbs to / Run like / Water, /”. And we want to fly with the wren “As though a stray / Leaf, fluttering over / The Grass…”

I generally indulge in picture books for the littlest reader, my 2-year old daughter, and I’ve often wondered how a picture book for older readers might fulfill educational needs and yet not feel like it is babying the reader.  Animal Poems answered my questions.  Free verse lacks the meter or rhyme of other kinds of poetry, achieving its lyricism in precise word choice and cadenced word flow.  For a middle school reader, it is hard to access precisely because it is so different from the understood paradigm.  Combined with Jenkins’ unique illustrations, Worth’s sparse yet suggestive poems more than speak for themselves.

I had some minor qualms which may reveal my shallow understanding of the classification of the animal world:  Are snail and spiders animals or insects?  Ultimately, I suppose it doesn’t matter: All Charlotte wants to do is look at the bear and the bat. I think she’ll be trying to make cut-paper collages any minute now!

Rating: *\*\*\

This book was a Cybils finalist. Check the full list here.

Comments

[Karen]

I love Valerie Worth. Thanks for the review -- something to add to my poetry shelf.