Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs

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Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs

Hardcover

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Hardcover
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Overview

Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis and the inimitable Jane Yolen team up in this ironic and witty take on the last moments in the lives of a variety of animals. Each poem in this darkly humorous collection is an epitaph of a different animal. Grouped by animal type, these posthumous poems are full of clever wordplay and macabre humor that will appeal to kids (and adults) of all ages.

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ISBN-13:	9781580892605
Publisher:	Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
Publication date:	07/01/2012
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	650L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

J. Patrick Lewis is the author of more than seventy books for children and was recently named Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. His books include FIRST DOG, SPOT THE PLOT: A RIDDLE BOOK OF RIDDLES, and KINDERGARTEN CAT. He lives in Westerville, Ohio. Visit Pat at www.jpatricklewis.com. Jane Yolen has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America. She is the award-winning author of over three hundred children's books including OWL MOON, a Caldecott Medal Winner, the How Do Dinosaurs . . .? series, BAD GIRLS, and SEA QUEENS. Jane lives in Western Massachusetts.

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Editorial Reviews

Lewis and Yolen team up for a darkly funny homage to the dearly departed—those with feathers, hooves, tails, and fins. An axe leans against a blood-stained stump while three feathers drift nearby (“Sorry, no leftovers,” reads a turkey’s epitaph), and a barracuda is destroyed by a superior predator: “My teeth were vicious;/ my bite was hateful./ A great white met me—/ the date was fateful.” Timmins’s bleak, blood-spattered palette and zombielike animals create an appropriately dismal environment for the funereal text; lovers of the macabre will cackle over these unfortunate demises. Ages 7–10. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Cracked epitaphs from Lewis and Yolen. This is a collection of 30 tombstone remembrances with an eye for the emphatically stamped exit visa. Ushered along by Timmins' smoky, gothic artwork--and sometimes over-reliant upon it for effect--these last laughs take on a variety of moods. Sometimes they are gruesome, as with the newt, "so small, / so fine, / so squashed / beneath / the crossing / sign." There are the macabre and the simply passing: "In his pond, / he peacefully soaked, / then, ever so quietly / croaked." Goodbye frog--haplessly, hopelessly adrift in the olivy murk, a lily flower as witness and X's for eyes. When writers and artist are in balance, as they are here, or when the Canada goose gets cooked on the high-tension wires, the pages create a world unto themselves, beguiling and sad. It works with the decrepitude of the eel and the spookiness of the piranha's undoing. But there are also times when the text end of the equation lets the side down. "Firefly's Last Flight: Lights out." Or the last of a wizened stag: "Win some. / Lose some. / Venison." Or the swan's last note: "A simple song. / It wasn't long." In these cases, brevity is not the soul of wit, but lost chances at poking a finger in the eye of the Reaper. Some spry and inspired grave humor here, but weighed equally with some unimaginative efforts. (Picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews

Gr 4–6—Lewis and Yolen demonstrate their wit and punning skills in this collection of 31 short selections describing the demise of a variety of creatures, both domestic and wild. Each author supplied 15 poems; one is a collaboration. Cartoon-style animals on the volume's cover and the picture-book format belie the sophistication of the poetry and illustrations within. Timmins has used black, gray, and brownish inks with some touches of color (including plenty of blood red) to create the bizarre, sometimes grim or grotesque computerized scenes that are an integral part of each poem-a newt squashed flat on the road; a goose fried on an electric wire; a sick old horse drinking from a stream into which a sheep is defecating; a rooster's body protruding from a car's grille. Youngsters who can get past the book's theme and are able to understand and appreciate the "deadly" dark humor based on clever wordplay are in for a treat, for both poets are in great form. Some prime examples are: Yolen's "Firefly's Final Flight" (a poem in two words)-"Lights out." and Lewis's "Ciao Cow"-"This grave is peaceful,/the tombstone shaded,/but I'm not here-/I've been cream-ated." Poeticized animals also include barracuda, swordfish, rattlesnake, woodpecker, dog, skunk, bear, and others. Definitely a tad macabre, but original and inventive, just the same.—Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

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