Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems by Paul B Janeczko (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems by Paul B Janeczko Deborah Stevenson, Editor Janeczko, Paul B., comp. Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems; illus. by Melissa Sweet. Candlewick, 2014. [48p]. ISBN 978-0-7636-4842-8 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 2–5. Noted poet/anthologist Janeczko here collects thirty-six poems (most previously published), dividing them into seasonal sections. Spring brings offerings from the likes of William Carlos Williams and Ralph Fletcher; Summer includes Langston Hughes and Joyce Sidman; Fall features verse from James Stevenson, Alice Schertle, and others, while winter concludes with poets such as Richard Wright and, appropriately, Robert Frost. The poems are short indeed, with haiku, cinquains, and other unrhymed verse predominating (though a rhyming entry or two slips in as well); most of them are bijou bursts of imagery, capturing a moment or provoking contemplation with a fresh metaphor. Sweet’s mixed-media art is elegant, quirky, and friendly, and it varies from attractive complement to creation of new world upon new world, sometimes eclipsing the verse. The spread for Sandburg’s “Window” (“Night from a railroad car window . . . ”), for instance, is a dramatic sequence of views through window-shaped apertures, often with the figures of train-riders silhouetted against the scenes on the other side of the glass. The spread featuring two different fog poems moves from Manhattanesque shoreline to fanciful mosaic towers obscured by firework puffs of mist correlating to the poem’s “thistledown.” While the inviting art and poetic brevity will lure younger readers (and readaloud audiences), there’s a sophistication in the poetic metaphors that will keep even older elementary readers engaged, and the compactness of the verse and visual translation will help reluctant poetry readers look at verse in a new light. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois