Poem Depot: Aisles of Smiles

Readers browse through "Poem Depot's" eleven "aisles" (chapters) with names like "Chortles & Chuckles" and "Tons of Puns." Many of the pieces are four to ten lines long, easily memorized by the audience, who will enjoy the funny punch lines. Florian uses thick, sketchlike lines for a loose, humorous effect in his Shel Silverstein–esque illustrations. Ind.

Florian's verse collections often include a sprinkling of funny poems, but this volume, with its broad and silly humor, is entirely devoted to them. Readers browse through "Poem Depot's" eleven "aisles" (chapters) with names like "Chortles & Chuckles" and "Tons of Puns." The humor is calibrated to tickle the same kids who enjoy Silverstein's classic Where the Sidewalk Ends (rev. 4/75), and the look of this book resembles Silverstein's work, too, with short poems interspersed with black outlined illustrations. Florian uses thick, sketch-like lines for a loose, humorous effect, showing things like two heads on the same body looking angrily at each other. The poems riff on everything from classic nursery rhymes (Old Mother Hubbard, realizing that the cupboard was bare, "ordered Chinese on the phone") to the mundane moments in life ("I've waited here patiently / Some ten years or more, / But I can't remember / What this line is for"). Many of the pieces are four to ten lines long, easily memorized by the audience, who will enjoy the funny punch lines. With a variety of forms (limericks, the occasional concrete poem) and silly wordplay (super-dupiter rhymes with Jupiter), it's a book made for dipping into for a quick laugh when needed. susan dove lempke