A collection of 18 poems seeks to encapsulate the school experience. With dry humor, David L. Harrison's "Show-and-Tell" describes what happens when Billy brings his snake to school; Kenn Nesbitt's soggy child sees wicked opportunity in a malfunctioning "Drinking Fountain"; Carol Diggory Shields captures, in clipped, breathless verse, the excitement of a "B-Ball" game. Other topics run the gamut from test anxiety to gross lunch food to recess to the challenge of cursive writing. Manning's spiky, slyly subversive watercolors give this collection a welcome edge, for, despite the overall solid quality of the selections, this is hardly a new concept—look at any back-to-school display to see its predecessors. Moreover, the final poem—a plaint about homework—which may excite sympathy, ends this volume on an oddly negative note. One to miss. (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)

Prelutsky follows What a Day It Was at School (2006) with another picture-book collection of poems that range from the classroom to the cafeteria to the playground. Contributed by well-known poets, including Carol Diggory Shields and Lee Bennett Hopkins, the mostly rhyming, lighthearted selections hit familiar targets, such as school lunch ("toad à la mode"), the anxiety of being called on in class, and mortifications like getting a noseful of water at the drinking fountain. The energetic, fruit-juice-hued watercolor scenes hum with cheerful energy and subversive humor and, like the poems, capture the chaotic intensity and fun of a typical school day.

Prelutsky selects pieces by well-known poets about the usual school subjects: cafeteria food, gym class, homework, etc. Though the ground is well trodden, each of these light verses works, with lots of humor and the occasional deviation from the everyday (a purple-painted frog, for instance). Watercolors with broad-faced, rosy-cheeked students add to the light atmosphere.

K-Gr 3 This collection of 18 short and funny poems by 13 different writers covers topics like riding the bus (&4;Sixteen boys/fourteen girls/Thirty pairs of sleepy eyes&4;) to the struggles of learning cursive (&4;Who decides?/Who gets to choose?/Who dreams up these curlicues?&4;), all dear to the hearts of their intended audience. Prelutsky&9;s &4;Grasshopper Gumbo&4; lists the offerings in the school cafeteria: &4;Grasshopper Gumbo/Iguana Tail Tarts/Toad &2; La Mode/Pickled Pelican Parts....&4; Manning&9;s watercolors add colorful splashes of humor; her round-faced children are comical and cute. While this book has a lot in its favor, it&9;s unfortunately an addition to an already crowded field of light verse about school. Libraries that have Carol Diggory Shields&9;s Lunch Money (Dutton, 1995) or Prelutsky&9;s What a Day It Was at School! (HarperCollins, 2006) might want to consider this title as a fun but nonessential purchase.— Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL

Rhymes and animated watercolors bring to life every aspect of school, from bus rides to class pets, lunchtime to science tests, in this collection of 18 poems written by 13 poets including Lee Bennett Hopkins, Kenn Nesbitt, Carol Diggory Shields, and Prelutsky himself. The things kids love (%E2%80%9CMy work%E2%80%99s all done./ I gotta run./ Two minutes until recess%E2%80%9D) are balanced out by the things they hate (%E2%80%9CIf homework were banished, I%E2%80%99d probably never/ Complain about anything, anything ever%E2%80%9D) and often mixed with the comically gross (%E2%80%9COf all the magic I have seen/ My favorite, I suppose,/ Was yesterday at lunch when Mark/ Made milk come out his nose%E2%80%9D). Ages 5%E2%80%9310. (July)