Your Skeleton Is Showing: Rhymes of Blunder from Six Feet Under

Gr 4–6—Macabre silliness to the max. A young narrator facilitates a reunion between a lost dog and his owner by searching a graveyard. As he looks from tombstone to tombstone for the ghost dog's master, readers learn the details of each person's life and death in a rhyming poem. They serve as a warning for those who don't care for their health or behave properly. Thumb suckers, nose pickers, and people who never floss their teeth are in for a ghastly demise. These characters have funny names, round bodies, and oversize eyes. Touches of red and yellow appear sporadically in the line drawings. Cyrus's poems are abundant in exaggeration and goofiness. About Mary Lou Smith, who died from choking on milk, he writes, "Everyone blows past their ears and nose./But never blow pasteurize." Death is not the end in this world though. Life continues, together, for owner and her pet, shown hugging at the top of the page in a cloud. Unusual, but fun.—Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada