Silly and gross, this title with 18 rhymes and wild, colorful cartoon illustrations in the All Aboard Poetry Reader series takes the fear out of learning to read and shows that books are fun. At the class party a boy gobbles cupcakes galore, and throws up. In a scenario many kids will recognize, Geraldo has gotta go, and the picture shows him rushing for the Boys. A kid insults the big bully (your brain's a whole lot smaller than those cooties on your head), but only when the kid is safe at home in bed. With the slapstick, there's an occasional note of yearning and loneliness: Tina does get a valentine--the one she sent to herself, just in case. Best of all is the pure nonsense: There must be a gimerick / To writing a limerick. The lesson here is the joy with language.

Fourteen-year-old Staggerlee's growing feelings for her cousin confirm her own suspicions that she might be gay. Resisting the less subtle exploration of girl meets girl and falls in love and lives happily ever after, Woodson crafts a more complex examination of gayness in the emerging adolescent in this welcome reissue of a reflective, lyrical story.

K-Gr 3-Although the rhythm is sometimes slightly off, the content of these poems is right on target for beginning readers, hitting the funny bones of young children. Rat has 18 poems based on school experiences-the cafeteria, homework, class picture, and the like. Grasshopper Pie consists of five silly poems including one that tells the perils of being near a sneezing elephant. The rhyming words will help emerging readers in decoding, as will the colorful illustrations. Children may need help with words such as "frightening," "photographer," and "caught," but on the whole they will be able to master the books and share them with their classmates. Fun additions to easy-reader collections.-Anne Knickerbocker, formerly at Cedar Brook Elementary School, Houston, TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.