Laugh-eteria

Kids will find plenty to chuckle over in Douglas Florian's punchline-rich Laugh-eteria, his seventh poetry offering after walloping successes like Bing Bang Boing and Insectlopedia. Well loved for his shameless punnery, Florian never hesitates to manipulate the language to suit his whim: "Graffiti, graffiti, / On sidewalk and streeti, / On glass and concreeti, / And on subway seati," begins one poem. Some of his verse rhymes quite neatly, such as this stanza from "Don't Drag a Dragon": "Don't drag a dragon by its tooth. / To drag it such is most uncouth, / Discourteous, and impolite, / And it will eat you in one bite." "What I'd Like to Share" bounces jauntily as well: "I'd like to share a nasty cold / And all my clothing that's too old. / I'd like to share a rotten chore. / Perhaps you'd like to the sweep the floor?" Other poems seem more unfinished, as if Florian got so excited about a certain goofy upside-down idea that it simply spilled out onto the page. In any case, Laugh-eteria is third-grader paradise, bursting with poem-riddles, flipped perspectives, and references to stinky feet, slimy food, monsters, noses, bugs, and dinosaurs that invariably reduce 8-year-olds to giggling heaps. Much like in Shel Silverstein's collections, each double-page spread comes to life with the poet's own freestyle ink drawings. Florian fans will enjoy the punster's groan-worthy wordplay, and kids will no doubt relish the rampant silliness that's strangely akin to their own. (Click to see a sample spread. Text and illustrations from Laugh-eteria, copyright ©1999 by Douglas Florian. Reproduced by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. (Ages 4 to 9) --Karin Snelson