NONFICTION

Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast: And Other Tasty Poems

by Jack Prelutsky (text) & illus. by Ruth Chan
HarperCollins/Greenwillow. Jan. 2021. 144p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780063019133.
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Gr 3-7–Prelutsky’s new poetry collection is a gift to the ears and eyes. Written in a variety of rhyme schemes, the poems describe feelings, unusual beasts, and monsters (the lazy slothrush, the confused niddlenudds, the wazawa). Black-and-white cartoon drawings accompany each poem and bring the words—both comical and descriptive—to life. Prelutsky is a master of humor and poetic device. The imagery throughout is interesting and clever: a garden of glowing electric light bulbs; a musical octopus octet; giant bubble gum bubbles that lift a child off the ground. Puns are another device featured in the text. Some poems include a phonetic representation of a creature’s name to help with pronunciation. The book could be used to spark ideas for a school poetry assignment.
VERDICT A well-written, must-have collection of poems.
Reviewed by Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker P.L., OH , Jan 01, 2021

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