Make Magic! Do Good!
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
From an exciting new face in children’s literature, Dallas Clayton, comes a book of illustrated poems full of wisdom, wonder, and whimsy. A boy with a beard tries to stay six forever. A frightful monster lives a million miles away, but is equally scared of you. A magic rope hangs from the sky, next to a sign saying "Give me a try." In this brightly illustrated selection of playful, often provocative poems, ideas run the gamut from stopping your lightning-fast running to help others keep up, imagining a store that sells colors never before made, or admitting you’ll never know all the answers (and sleeping better at night). Following the runaway success of his self-published debut, Dallas Clayton’s quirky, captivating collection makes it clear that this rising talent, whose work has evoked comparisons to Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and Shel Silverstein, exudes a spirit and style all his own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
To get a sense of the tone of this poetry collection from Clayton (An Awesome Book!), look no further than the illustration note on the copyright page, which says the artwork was "done in two parts positive vibes and three parts watercolor rainbow sprinkles." Recurring themes in the nearly 50 poems include seizing the day, making friends of enemies, being kind, and blazing one's own trail. "ou won't be fast forever/ so the clever thing to do/ is to stop and help the others keep up/ because someday/ they'll be you," writes Clayton in "Running!" while "You Never Know" cautions, "Be nice to your friends,/ 'cause you never know/ when you'll be stuck/ in ten feet of snow/ with nowhere to stay/ and nowhere to go." What keeps the collection from sinking under its own good intentions are Clayton's illustrations, which are whimsical but not saccharine, and his sense of humor, which peeks through in poems like "The Breaks," in which a bear claims he broke his leg "just walking," before outlining the laundry list of daredevil stunts ("I jumped off a roof/ and onto a bike...") that accompanied said walk. Ages 7 up.
