A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play Hope Morrison Singer, Marilyn . A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play; illus, by LeUyen Pham. Clarion, 2012. [40p]. ISBN 978-0-547-12493-3 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad 6-9 yrs. Eighteen poems, two previously published, celebrate everything from jumping rope and balancing on curbs to making mud soup and playing in the sprinkler, in this tribute to playing outdoors. There is a wide variety of topics, and young listeners will find both familiar and novel pastimes. The poems are variably successful; some scan smoothly, with words and meter working harmoniously together and evocatively detailing the topic at hand, while others are clumsy and difficult to read aloud. Pham's illustrations, initially in pencil and ink and then colored digitally, have a warm and inviting palette, and they feature a multicultural cast of children [End Page 322] grinning widely as they ramble through the scenes. The art lacks the subtle flair usual in Pham's work, and the children's joy is a little overpointed, since every single child wears a look of sheer delight. Brad Burg's Outside the Lines (BCCB 4/02) is a much more imaginative poetic look at the world of childhood games, but this could be effective in an April unit celebrating both spring and National Poetry Month, and it could also give kids some much needed memories of warmth and sunshine during the winter—or even provide them with the impetus to get off the couch and get outside. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois