| Deborah Ruddell and Joan Rankin, the team behind Today at the Bluebird Cafe, have a new picture book poetry collection out: A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk: A Forest of Poems.
This is another fun collection with many touches of humor. While I enjoy serious poetry about animals and nature a lot, it’s also good to see a gently funny collection. These aren’t silly or nonsense poems, they’re just poems about the lighter side of the forest. Here are a couple I enjoyed:
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Biography of a Beaver
Bucktoothed Cleaver
Tree Retriever
Building Conceiver
True Believer
Waterproof Weaver
Overachiever
Roll-Up-Her-Sleever–
Hooray for the Beaver!
–Deborah Ruddell,
all rights reserved
How wonderful is that? Waterproof Weaver/Overachiever are my two favorite lines there. I’ve been enjoying list poems a lot lately (check out Falling Down the Page), and this one puts me in mind of Douglas Florian’s work. This simple set of identifiers for a beaver–so fun and clever!
Here’s another one I love:
Ode to a Salamander
Ponder yonder salamander,
innocent and shy:
a sensitive amphibian
who wouldn’t hurt a fly…
especially if there should be
a spider passing by,
which she could sweetly gobble up
and barely blink an eye.
–Deborah Ruddell, all rights reserved
Hope you enjoy this collection as much as I do!