The Flying Change

The Flying Change by Henry S. Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Taylor takes the disturbing moments that stick in one's mind for a long, long time (e.g. someone losing a finger, finding a corpse while mowing a large country lawn, witnessing the accidental death of a horse) and turns them into poetry. I wouldn't say haunting since memories similar to these (like visiting a dying relative in the hospital, realizing that a loved one can no longer control his/her bodily functions, or like the previous examples - something more gruesome) affect everyone. I think that the poetry is in articulating those memories, giving them a tangible existence so they can be shared without losing their impact.

Highly recommended for adults 30 & older. I don't think people younger than this will get it, maybe some of them, but I think a bit of life experience is needed before being able to appreciate these.

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Life on Mars

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who can write about birth, life, and wondering about our small place in the universe the way that Smith can totally deserves 5 stars. And a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Wait - she's got both! And refers to Charlton Heston and David Bowie in her poetry. Breathing a contented sigh.

Highly recommended mostly for 30-something hipsters or 30-somethings who like hipsters. Also highly recommended for other poetry lovers.

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Mind's Eye

Mind's Eye by Paul Fleischman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quick read as it's in a play format - without most of the set descriptions & stage directions. The main character, Courtney is not very likable, but neither was Pollyanna right after her accident, so I can cut her some slack. Overall, it was a good book about imagination & the value that literature can have for an inner, mental life that other forms of entertainment don't always provide enough substance for.

I would definitely recommend this book to teens who need to do a book report in a hurry. I'd also recommend it to young people who like the sort of tearjerker where the main character (probably) dies in the end because she had sex once & got HIV or fell in love with a boy who dies at the end, etc... because this book is sort of like the book that comes after that. There's a terrible accident & the girl gets paralyzed, but that's not what this book is about. This is about her first few months in the hospital doing physical therapy & slowly recovering a will to live. It's not a tearjerker, but it deals with a terrible calamity that's befallen a beautiful girl.


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Art Attack

Art Attack: A Brief Cultural History of the Avant-Garde by Marc Aronson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not a lot of new information here for me, but it's an excellent introduction to the avant garde in the arts during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Written with teens & young adults as the target audience, it would also be appropriate for any layperson looking for a place to start on this subject. Very readable. Aronson has done well - the only way it would be better would be if the illustrations were in color.

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A Child's Garden of Verses

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I remember having read at least some of these poems as a little girl. "The Swing" and "My Shadow" were poems I remembered in particular, though whether I read this before or read those in a different collection, I can't be sure. My oldest boy (3 & a half yrs old) really enjoys the poems. His favorite thus far is "My Shadow." The illustrations in this edition are wonderful also. Very highly recommended for bedtime reading with kids of all ages. Great alternative to a lot of the comical poetry for kids and Mother Goose (though I like those also).



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Cautionary Verses

Cautionary Verses by Hilaire Belloc

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A predecessor to Shel Silverstein. The Cautionary Tales are the best part of the collection in my opinion. :) There are some illustrations that are offensive by today's standards, but might provide a good bridge to a conversation with children about *why* they're considered in extremely bad taste (at best) and what happened to cause public opinions to change. For the most part, the poetry itself isn't as bad in the places where nationality or race are mentioned & Belloc does take a stab at Western Europeans & their looks and characteristics also. Overall, I'd recommend the Cautionary Tales to fans of Shel Silverstein & the entire work to his more mature fans.



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John Keats - Poems

Keats: Poems by John Keats

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Keats's sonnets were much more enjoyable than his longer work, I think due to their structure. The longer works just felt like someone sat down with a rhyming dictionary and did their best to entertain their friends & loved ones. The descriptive language Keats uses is rich and vibrant. The rhyme just felt forced and was very distracting, whereas with the shorter poems, this was not the case. Perhaps this is because the poetry is written by a young man (he died at 25) still developing his style and becoming comfortable with different poetical structures. Anyone interested in the Romantics should take a look - perhaps starting with the sonnets, but I'd recommend Samuel Coleridge first though before Keats.



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