A Book of Poetry by Douglas Florian

POETRY BOOK REVIEW

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Douglas Florian. 2000. MAMMALABILIA. Orlando: Harcourt. ISBN 0152021671


SUMMARY
Florian writes twenty one different poems dedicated to twenty one different real mammals that inhabit our earth. The poems celebrate all kinds of mammals. Some of the poems explore the lives of mammals such as lemurs that live most of their lives off the ground while other poems describe the characteristics of mammals that live all their lives on the ground and seldom frequent the water except for drinking purposes like zebras do. Finally, some of the poems are focused on the types of mammals that love the land and water equally such as the otter do.



CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The master poet and illustrator Florian uses a variety of poetry in this mammal anthology. For example in his poem entitled THE HIPPO he uses a shape poem to describe a typical day in the life of a hippo. In the first line By day the hippo loves to float my child described it this way “those are his eyes as he is looking out of the water because you can only see his eyes as he is floating.” The second line says On swamps and lakes, much like a boat which my child commented that the shape of this line reminded him of the wide mouth of the hippo. The third line reads At night from water it retreats, and this reminded him of how the hippo’s body starts to narrow closer to its legs. The rest of the poem reads as follows: And eats
and eats
and eats
and eats.
These last parts recalled to him how the hippo’s body gets slimmer and slimmer until finally the slenderness of the hippo’s legs is reached which is odd compared to the rest of its body. This book was very relevant to our nighttime reading routine because we had viewed on this particular day an animal movie which contained a hippo along with a zebra, gorilla, elephant, and giraffe. Therefore, his recollection of exactly how the mammals in the movie looked like and how they were described, illustrated, and “written” about (meaning if Florian wrote the poem in shape form) in this anthology were fresh in his mind and made the poems come alive.




Another variation that Florian uses is the rhyming pattern of “aaa.” In the poem THE RHEBOK he writes:
The rhebok’s main
Claim to fame
Is its name.


He uses the same type of pattern in the unique poem THE GIRAFFE.
Rubber-necker
Double-decker
Cloud-checker
Star-trekker

Florian’s creative yet factual descriptions of mammals not only help children understand the uniqueness of each animals being depicted but the way he writes and illustrates his work begs for the book to be read again and again.


REVIEW EXCERPT

Publishers Weekly-“This collection of 21 short light verse brims with whimsy and fun. The artwork taps into childlike qualities without being simplistic; the animal portraits are clever yet appropriate. An irresistible homage to mammal memorabilia.”




CONNECTIONS

Some other poetry books that have not only been written by Florian but also illustrated by him are as follows (this list is not exhaustive but will get you get started if after reading or have read MAMMALABILIA you enjoyed it as much as my son and I did):

BEAST FEAST. 1994. Orlando: Harcourt ISBN 0152951784
BOW WOW MEOW MEOW. 2003. Orlando: Harcourt ISBN 0152163956
COMETS, STARS, THE MOON, AND MARS. 2007.
Orlando: Harcourt ISBN 9780152053727
INSECTLOPEDIA. 1998. Orlando: Harcourt ISBN 0152013067
LAUGH-ETERIA. 1999. San Diego: Harcourt ISBN 0152020845
ON THE WING. 1996. Orlando: Harcourt ISBN 0152004971