Stardines Swim High Across the Sky: and Other Poems
In Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant (2006), Prelutsky and Berger combined forces to delight with uproarious poems about animals crossed with inanimate objects. Here they continue their zoological compendium, adding animals infused with personality traits (&#x201C;SLOBSTERS are slovenly, / SLOBSTERS are crude. / SLOBSTERS love mashing / And smushing their food&#x201D;; &#x201C;PLANDAS sit around all day, / Planning what to do&#x201D;). Prelutsky offers a wide variety of form and meter, and the poems consistently bounce with the rhythmic vitality and sparkling surprise we have come to expect from him. Each poem enjoys a two-page spread, illuminated in Berger&#x2019;s three-dimensional dioramas built of carefully cut paper and found objects and decorated with pins and tags and other trappings of scientific specimen cases. Poet and artist clearly share a comic sensibility (witness the JOLLYFISH&#x2019;s dentures), and their partnership bears symbiotic fruit. Adults will have great success sharing these poems with groups, but it won&#x2019;t be long before kids are reading them to one another.      HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Prelutsky is poetry royalty, and teachers and librarians will be eager to share his latest. Grades 1-5. --Thom Barthelmess