FICTION

Shake-Awakes

by Robert HEIDBREDER
illus. by Marc Mongeau. 40p. 2012. Tradewind, dist. by Orca. PLB $18.95. ISBN 978-1-896580-71-5.
COPY ISBN
Gr 1–3—This poetry collection claims to be an instruction manual for getting late risers out of bed. The first part, "Wake-Up calls for Grown-up Use Only," exploits the gross-out factor to rouse kids. These selections threaten that the bed burps itself alive and eats its contents or the Cabbage Scourge will come out and sneeze ("Out will spray my veggie goo./Then you'll smell like mouldy stew"). The second part, "Wake-Up calls for Children's Use Only," focuses more on using destruction to get sleepy adults up; they might find the remote in the toilet or the computer destroyed if they stay in bed. Both sections resort to making unpleasant noises to achieve results. Humorous and imaginative watercolor illustrations add interest to rhymes that sometimes can feel repetitive. An additional purchase.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA
In the first half of these sixteen poems, parents attempt to rouse their sleepy children with playful threats of monsters and eyeball bugs. In the second half, it's the parents who need waking, as their kids threaten them with various disasters. Creative line arrangements and rhymes distract from the sometimes uneven meter. The illustrations evoke the bizarreness of dreamland.
Reviewed by Julie Roach , May 01, 2012

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