FALLING DOWN THE PAGE: A BOOK OF LIST POEMS by Georgia Heard

Heard, Georgia. Falling Down The Page: A Book of List Poems. New York: Square Fish, 2011. ISBN 978-1-59643-666-4. $8.99

Edited by Georgia Heard, Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems is a refreshingly unique poetry anthology for young readers. Heard unites these poems by form allowing the book to explore a variety of subjects while simultaneously highlighting the range and depth of the list form of poetry. Falling Down the Page highlights themes young readers can relate to, touching on everything from test anxiety to the beauty of nature. While the overall arc of the book follows a school day and a school year, the poems themselves grapple with issues and ideas far more diverse.

The best poems in Falling Down the Page come to life in the specificity of the objects or observations being catalogued. In “In My Desk” Jane Yolen’s list of absurd objects “one/ holey/ sock, […]a pair of moldy/ old pincecones, […] my braces that were much too tight,/ a lunch box/ with a great big/ hunk/ of rotting cheese” drives the voice of this loveably eccentric speaker (16). The details draw the reader in heightening the emotional impact. Similarly, Kathy Applet’s “Test Day” uses specific details to enliven the voice of the poem. The poem opens, “It is never about the things I know:”(30). Then it continues with a list of weighty points of knowledge, “That my great-great-aunt learned to drive when she was 68 […] How the thunder scares my ginger-striped cat” each item enriches the speaker’s voice (30). Applet’s “Test Day” is one of the many skillful voice driven poems that run through Falling Down the Page.

Moreover, the poems in Falling Down the Page are richly musical in a variety of ways. Many of the poems, such as the opening poem, “Good-byes,” use a short meter and overt rhyme scheme to create a whimsical music. Lines such as, “It’s really hard/ to say good-bye/ to twinkling beach,/ and golden sky,/ to castles rising/ from the sand, to Annie’s caramel/ popcorn stand,” evoke nursery rhymes establishing a familiar poetic music. In “Things to Do if You are the Sun” Bobbi Katz employs a more subtle soft tone of music. Relying on assonance and internal rhyme, allow the stark images of the poem to not be overpowered by a heavy rhyme scheme. Katz writes, “Keep things cool enough for penguins./ Slip away to end the day./ Light the moon at night./ Let people and animals sleep./ And at the crack of dawn,/ wake up the world!” foregrounding the speaker’s views of the sun thereby letting the music work as a soft underscore (33). On the opposite end of the musical spectrum, David Harrison’s “Chorus of Four Frogs” is one-hundred percent music. The poem is made up of four voices repeating onomatopoeic words in a variety of sequences. The words “Greedeep,” “Ribbet?” “Peep-peep” and “Ker-plum!” are repeated to create, as the title suggests, a frog chorus crescendo. “Chorus of Four Frogs” provides a unique perspective of the list poem (39). Young readers will love reading this poem aloud.

While one might worry an entire book of list poems may grow tedious, each poem in Falling Down The Page is unique and engaging. Readers will be captivated by the diverse voices and music singing from the page and inspired to try to create a list poem of their own.

Francine Rockey

DEATH CLOUD by Andrew Lane

Lane, Andrew. Death Cloud. New York: Square Fish, 2011. ISBN-10: 031256371X.

As adventure stories go, this one bristles with intrigue and pulses with strange twists and turns. A young Sherlock Holmes, intent on returning home for summer holidays from his boarding school, instead is diverted towards his estranged uncle’s home in the country. What begins as a humdrum, monotonous stay with inaccessible and cold relatives turns rather quickly into a sharp and confusing mystery when a dead body appears on his uncle’s land. It’s a promising tale, and young readers will enjoy the antics that Sherlock and his new mate Matty Arnatt get up to moments within meeting one another, from inadvertent spying on shady criminals to surreptitious boat rides. And the climax, well it’s just one round of intensity after another, with observation and cunning being the most deadly weapons.

The confusion around the titular enigma that momentarily lingers over bodies, a “death cloud” of sorts, is unfortunately resolved too quickly. However, that in turn does lead toward a new series of questions that befuddle the reader more than any would-be otherworldly forces. Basically the truth seems more farfetched than imagination, but at least Holmes is quick to point that out to the villains themselves, who only begin to question the feasibility of their plans at this young teenager’s prodding. Visually, readers might also be somewhat unsettled or perturbed by the villain himself who, having suffered a great injury during a war, has an almost laughable appearance if it weren’t so disturbing. Still, Lane uses history to his benefit and creates characters and settings that fit perfectly into the time period and the machinations of that era.

There does remain one major issue though—the imagining of young Sherlock Holmes himself. Any avid Holmes reader will find it hard to believe that as a fourteen year old, Sherlock had not yet developed his keen sense of observation, wit, sarcastic cunning at least to some degree. I can see him not fitting in at school, but I cannot imagine him being so… timid. I welcomed the summer tutor his brother hires for him, an American with sharp senses and a sharper brain, who guides Sherlock through his first stages of development into the dark world of mystery and crime solving. But Sherlock himself did not ring true for me, instead lacking in personality and falling for a girl far too simply like any typical teenager would. That Lane’s book is fully endorsed by the Conan Doyle Estate makes me wonder though, do I expect too much of the grand master detective? Or do his talents deserve to have been inculcated at an earlier age?

Nevertheless, the book does allow for a growing parade of subsequent books, which may resolve such issues as: Why his uncle was estranged from his father in the first place? When does Holmes’ disdain for common folk and ambivalence toward women develop? And what mysteries lie within his own family? It would be a fun experience to see if and how these unfold amidst the wild capers Sherlock is bound to pursue.

Reviewed by Alya Hameed

TIKKI TIKKI TEMBO by Arlene Mosel

Mosel, Arlene. Tikki Tikki Tembo. Illustrated by Blair Lent. Tarrytown, NY: Square Fish, 1968. ISBN 9780312367480. $6.95. Ages 4-7.

This Tikki Tikki Tembo is a 2007 re-issue of an old Chinese folktale published in 1968. It is about an old tradition in which the eldest son in a family is given an honorably long name. Mosel’s protagonist  is named Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo, meaning “the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world,” while his younger brother is just named Chang, meaning “little or nothing.” The two boys enjoy playing near the well while their mother washes clothes in a nearby stream. One day Cheng falls into the well. When Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo tells his mom, she tells him to fetch the old man with the ladder to get him out. The old man retrieves Cheng and all is good again. Then, on another day, when the two boys are playing by the well again, Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo falls in. Cheng runs to tell his mother, but he so is frantic and out of breath that he can barely say his brother’s name. By the time his mother understands and Cheng is able to communicate the news to the old man with the ladder, Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo has been in the well for quite a while. As a result, his recovery time is much more lengthy than Cheng’s. And thus, as a result, Chinese parents from then on give all their children short names.

Children and parents have enjoyed this book together for decades by getting caught up in the fun of reciting Tikki tikki tembo’s full name. Blair Lair’s illustrations consist of line drawings with watercolor, making the artwork look similar to old classic Chinese art. I don’t particularly like how the mother names her children according to how she values them, but she does show that she cares for Cheng by being properly concerned when he first falls in the well. His rescue is then followed by a double page spread illustration of the mother, old man, Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo and Cheng all celebrating. Overall it is an entertaining story.

Joyce Myers