Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

Twenty-six clever parodies of classic poems by Shakespeare, Dickinson, and others ably retain the rhythm and meter of the originals: e.g., "Macaroni and Cheese," a riff on Poe's "Annabel Lee," begins, "It was many and many a week ago / that I and my sister Louise / first tried out a food that you might know / called macaroni and cheese." Faulkner's spirited illustrations suit the lighthearted transmogrifications.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This collection of light verse is more amusing in its concept than in its execution. The 26 poems are not exactly parodies, but each echoes a work by a well-known poet in its rhyme scheme or topic. Shapiro includes "apologies" to cite her models. For example, the tag "With apologies to Robert Burns ("A Red, Red Rose")" precedes Shapiro's "A Red, Red Nose": "Oh! My nose is like a red, red rose/ That's newly burnt in June." While readers may get a chuckle out of twists on familiar lines, Shapiro's more obscure burlesques may befuddle even sophisticates, e.g., the opening entry plays off lines in <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Cymbeline("Bark, Bark! It's dark!" writes Shapiro). On the other hand, the title poem, based on Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," is funny whether the reader knows Dickinson's poem or not: "Because I could not stop my bike/ it kindly stopped for me./ Unluckily, it did not stop/ until it hit a tree." Like the poems, Faulkner's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving) watercolored pen-and-ink caricatures are serviceable, but they lack the imagination and verve of his previous work. Ages 7-12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(July)

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-In these delightful transformations of 26 classic poems, Shapiro has taken the rhythms and meters of the originals and made them her own. Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" becomes "Oh, Mommy! My Mommy!," a lament from a kid stuck in the backseat on a long car trip. Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" becomes "Macaroni and Cheese" ("It was many and many a week ago/that I and my sister Louise/first tried out a food that you might know/called macaroni and cheese"). Each selection begins with apologies to the original poet. Although the best audience for this book might be English-major parents of seven- and eight-year-olds, most of the poems do have child appeal, at least on some level. Faulkner's comic watercolor-and-ink pictures add a light touch that is totally appropriate for this fun book. With apologies to John Donne, Shapiro notes in a brief foreword: "Do not ask for whom the poems are told./The poems are told for you." Indeed. A great concept with a highly appealing treatment.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.