What's the Weather Inside‪?‬

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 9 MAR 2009

Though both their titles invoke the weather, these poetry collections have atmospheres all their own. What's the Weather Inside?Karma Wilson, illus. by Barry Blitt. S&S/McElderry, (176p) "If you think poems are stupid/ and poetry's a bore,/ ... / and if you're sure this book's the same/ as all you've read before.../ I dare ya, yes, I dare ya: Turn the page." Early on, Wilson (Bear Snores On) throws down the gauntlet in her wide-ranging book of humorous, often edgy poetry, Silversteinian in its format and sensibility. Coupled with ink-drawn caricatures by Blitt (The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven), the poems range from modern parables ("I'm telling you now that I'd rather eat cow/ than that goo that my aunt calls tofu./ Ew") to more experimental verse. On one spread, a list of "lovely" words ("moonlight,/ butterfly,/ chamomile") faces another with "ugly" words ("traitor,/ homicide,/ moron"). Blitt's artwork adeptly magnifies the tones that the poems strike: in "Golden Eggs," a goose wearing a crown and "Bling" pendant stares at an empty cradle. " rather have/ one fluffy chick/ than a million golden eggs." The darker poems will not appeal to all, but from the silly to the unsavory, there's plenty to provoke and entertain. Ages 6 10.