Gr 2-5 The surprises begin with the cover of this long, narrow book that opens from the top, sporting a title tumbling down with assorted objectsa feather, a squirrel, a pencil, a sock. Inside is a wide variety of list or catalogue poems, which Heard describes in her introduction as "the oldest and most accessible of poetic forms." Many focus on the ordinary: Marilyn Singer's selection opens, "I like to hold in my hand/a baseball,/a shell,/a fistful of sand,/a feather,/a letter,/a red rubber band." Others, like Elaine Magliaro's "Things to Do If You're a Pencil" and Bobbi Katz's "Things to Do If You Are the Sun," encourage readers to think about familiar items in new ways, and kids will enjoy writing their own "Things to do" poems. Still others urge youngsters to think more abstractly: Lee Bennett Hopkins's entry asks, "Why poetry?/Why?/Why sunsets?/Why trees?/Why birds?/Why seas?/Why you?/Why me?" David Harrison's humorous "Chorus of Four Frogs" will be hilarious to perform. It's a given that alert teachers will use this volume to encourage the enjoyment and writing of poetry. A winner. Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI

Part mystery, part exploration of adolescent psychology, McAdam's second novel ( Some Great Thing , 2004) revolves around the disappearance of a teenaged girl from an elite Canadian boarding school. Handsome, easygoing, effortlessly self-assured Julius is the charmed son of an American diplomat. His romance with the beautiful Fallon (Fall for short) provokes the envy of classmates, especially awkward, cerebral Noel, his senior-year roommate. Thrown together by circumstance, the boys develop an ad hoc friendship, and Noel becomes a confidant for the besotted Julius. When Julius, confined after a prank, enlists his roommate as a romantic go-between, Noel's fascination with the golden couple metastasizes into obsession. Then, just before winter vacation, Fall goes missing. It takes a while for her disappearance to make ripples beyond the cloistered world of the St. Ebury School, but eventually the police are summoned and suspicion falls on the roommates. In the novel's second half we see both boys' self-mythologies implode. The story is told mainly in their voices: Noel's chilly, careful narrative contrasts with his roommate's bubbly, almost aggressively superficial stream of consciousness. Noel's sections have flashes of William Trevorlike darkness and insight, and the plot does eventually build momentum, but the police investigation of Fall's disappearance is oddly halfhearted and low-key, a circumstance that serves the plot more than the mandates of law enforcement. Smart and fitfully chilling, but puerile St. Ebury school sometimes seems less like a setting than a wallow.

The table of contents creates the first list here, naming the 45 list poems appearing in this slender volume. Then come the poems themselves, which celebrate children's everyday experiences during the school year. The poems vary from simple lists to descriptive ones to those combining with other forms, such as concrete poetry. Well designed to display lists, the narrow pages are bound at the top edge, creating a long vertical space on each page or double-page spread. There are no illustrations, and none are needed. The placement of each large-type title creates a different look for each selection. The anthology includes verse by contemporary children's poets such as Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Jane Yolen, Lee Bennett Hopkins, and Naomi Shihab Nye. Since list poems are a frequent starting place for classroom poetry-writing projects, teachers will welcome this fine anthology.

Formatted like a refrigerator note pad, this slim, vertical volume includes thirty-two list poems by Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis, Kristine O'Connell George, and others. The poems catalog the familiar: places to read, things observed walking home from school, objects found in a desk or under a bed. These accessible pieces will inspire kids to create their own lists in verse.