The Wonder Book

By Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by

Paul Schmid

HarperCollins, 2010

$17.99, 9-12, 80 pages

Funny, irreverent and hopelessly cute, Rosenthal's book is a gem from start to finish.

Matched with the whimsical line drawings of Schmid, her poems capture all the charm and naivety of being little, and, in tone, remind me of sketches in Maurice Sendak and Ruth Krauss 1952 classic "A Hole is to Dig."

Every poem in the collection is a delight to read aloud, but most you won't want to recite without sharing the pictures, as there are lots of little details that add to the fun.

Take this funny twist on Shakespeare's line, "A Rose by Any Other Name," a little poem about intestinal gas.

Beside the poem, a girl stands pigeon-toed with a look of dread on her face for what just happened, as a skunk looks on at her from the next page, smitten by her malodorous mistake.

It begins, "In Spain it's called a pedo / In Hungary you'd pass a fing / In Dutch you'd say en wind lateen / When your bottom sings," and ends, "No matter where you come from / Or what language that you speak / It's just really really funny / To hear a tushy squeak."

Throughout the book, there are clever little plays on words, and smart collaborations between verse and pictures.

On one two-page spread, a scientist in oversized glasses points to a Periodic Table of how to behave. Above him the title reads, "For Those Who Periodically Need Reminding About Table Manners,'" and to his right, a chart of atomic numbers list the manners 1-13, each with its own symbol, such as "Bu" for "Refrain from burping at the table."

Some poems play out in short comic strips and one even comes with a funny warning.

Leading into a poem about spoiled children, a two-page spread shows a path meandering out of woods and past an arrow sign pointing to the next page. Across the fold, you read, "Take a Deep Breath… You are About the Enter Brat City."

On the following page, readers come nose to nose with a big sour face. A girl is sticking out her tongue and her eyes are scrunched into slits. Then on the opposite side you find out about "Brat City," where children have no city limits and whine all the time.

There are also silly palindromes, a poem to celebrate being half-way through the book and an instructional poem on how to sneak a cookie without mom seeing.

Clever bit: Who can resist this little verse, as a little boy wading in the ocean looks awkwardly at his tush. "Tinkle / Tinkle / In the sea / Don't look under / While I pee…"

Whether you love silly questions or are just in the book for the ride, this collection is sure to spread giggles around the room.

Poetrees

Words and pictures by Douglas Florian

Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster, 2010

$16.99, ages 4-8, 48 pages

A poem may not be as lovely as a tree, but Florian's tribute to these stalwarts of the forest is certain to inspire affection.

When reading these splendid little poems, be sure to hold the book upright for the listener to see, for it's the melding of words and pictures that makes this tribute so extraordinary.

Florian, author-illustrator of the hit book Dinothesaurus, overlays short poems on paintings of trees, tree parts and in one case the organic outline of child, so that the poems are as much about the pictures as the words.

On one two-page spread, a poem about roots is set over the torso of a child. Her outline is drawn in water-saturated lines of paint in varying shades of earth-brown. The lines, like roots, wind down two pages, which, like all of the book's spreads, are oriented vertically.

The poem begins just below the child's eyes and continues over her midriff, with an occasional word changing in spacing and direction to give it emphasis.

Every time Florian uses a word that means, "to expand," he spaces the letters widely, and when he uses one that means, "downward movement," he breaks from the horizontal structure of the poem to write vertically.

The words and pictures work so well together that you're swept along by Florian's passion for trees. In "Giant Sequoia," his awe for this ancient tree easily becomes your awe.

He paints a single massive sequoia rising "heavenly high," far above every other tree in the forest, and illuminated by an outline of radiant gold. Spaced up the trunk are human hands with their palms flat and facing the reader, as if to say "Halt," to any who would want to cut it down.

In some of the poems, the lines follow the shape of the subject, as in "Tree Rings," in which words move in a circular path, or "The Seed," in which the poem follows a figure eight, suggestive of the helicopter shaped maple seed.

All of the poems are fairly spare, and perhaps because their lines are short (sometimes just a word or two long), you might find yourself picking up the pace as you read and adding your own exclamation mark.

Clever bit: I loved that every "Poetree" must be turned and viewed vertically, as if to say that trees and their parts reach so far into the earth and sky that a book can barely keep them in.

Everybody Was a Baby Once: and Other Poems

By Allan Ahlberg, pictures by Bruce Ingram

Candlewick Press, 2010

$15.99, ages 4-8, 64 pages

Every page of Ahlberg's book is so playful and happy that you feel as though you're right there with the characters, skipping, splashing and seeing funny things unfold.

This is another book that begs to be held up as you read aloud, and is also a perfect book for children to get lost in, as there's so much to look at as they read.

Ahlberg puts a fun spin on everything from wash day to bath time to the nonsensical, while Ingram's ink drawings, punctuated with strokes of color, build on that whimsy and energy.

Each page celebrates the splendor of being little and at times the content feels as capricious as a child.

Poems and pictures are always on the go, dashing here and there. But they're so fun to read and look at that readers will be tempted to linger on one spread even as they itch to see what's next.

Some poems, like "When I Was Just a Little Child," are so cleverly worded, they feel like classics-in-the-making. This particular poem shows how larger-than-life things can seem to a small child.

"When I was just a little child / The world seemed wide to me. / My mom was like a featherbed / My bath was like the sea. / My high chair was a mighty tower / The view I had was grand. / With cups and plates stretched out for miles / Across the tableland."

Other poems reflect the kinds of crazy imaginative thoughts that come to a child, like what sausages would do if they had legs, and some are just plain wacky in a way that a child will appreciate.

Take "Dangerous to Know," a poem about the perils of being around inanimate objects that take on a life of their own.

Next to a drawing of a red-lipped eraser with a pigtail, a verse reads: "The Rubber Girl / Without a doubt / When rubbed up wrongly / Will rub you out."

Clever bit: A good finale often comes with a pause and with a few of Ahlberg's poems, you have to flip the page to read the final line, giving Ingram a chance to set up a funny scene, which in at least one case sets up the next poem.

After reading most of the first poem of the book, "Monday is Washday" on one spread, you turn the page to see a bathtub and soap bar chasing a boy on a bicycle, which takes us to the next pages and the second poem, "Dirty Bill."

As the boy continues to be pursued, you read: "I'm Dirty Bill from Vinegar Hill, / Never had a bath and never will." Terse and matter-of-fact, the lines capture his defiance, and are sure to put a mischievous giggle in your listener.

Name That Dog! Puppy Poems from A to Z

By Peggy Archer, illustrated by Stephanie Buscema

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2010

$16.99, ages 3-5, 32 pages

Stuck for a name for your little pooch? Listen to all of the silly things these puppies do and you might be inspired too.

In this snappy A-Z of dog names, Archer celebrates the lovable quirks of 26 breeds and shows how, if given a little leeway, dogs will almost name themselves.

The title of each poem is a name that reflects the look or character of the breed, or something funny that happens to the dog.

There's the yellow Lab "Aspen," who is the color of golden marmalade and plays in aspen leaves, the Bulldog "Jingles" who has so many dog tags you always know he's near and the Schnauzer "Whiskers" who has beads of dog food strung on his whiskers.

Some dogs are named for their mischief, like the Field Spaniel "Chewy," who devours slippers, the Mini Pinscher "Houdini" who's always gets loose and the Boston Terrier "Bandit," whose eyes, circled in black, pilfers everything in sight.

"…He sneaks around from room to room / a bandit in disguise. / Stealing socks and slippers, / baseball caps and soap, / garden gloves and wooden spoons, / keys and jumping rope."

"So if there's something missing, / like a book or cowboy boot, / just take a look by Bandit's bed -- that's where he keeps his loot."

Other dogs are named for the day they were born, the sounds they make or the things they can't resist doing.

Take the Dalmatian "Daisy": "She runs through Mother's petunias. / She thinks the pansies are fun. / Then she gets a bit lazy / and lies in the daisies / And quietly naps in the sun."

Every poem is matched with a playful picture of the dog caught in the act of being themselves, like the Boykin spaniel YoYo, leaping up and down among three of the spiraling toys.

"He's a Roller Coaster falling. / He's a Rocket in the Sky. / He's up and down, he's Stop and Go, / like a yoyo whizzing by!"

Clever bit: The idea of a book of names for puppies is hilarious. If only humans had such a fun guide to name their babies.