Beasts, birds, and bugs come out to work, play, and lounge poolside in the lighthearted, lavishly illustrated poetry collection How Elegant the Elephant: Poems About Animals and Insects by former children's poet laureate Mary Ann Hoberman (Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart), with art by Marla Frazee (In Every Life).
Porcupines run backwards, squirrels metaphorically enter the hotel industry, and a common pest is the solution to a riddle in Hoberman's 68 posthumously published poems. Frazee's illustrations bind many of the poems into a narrative: "Abracadabra" asks if a zebra is "black striped with white" or "white striped with black" under a striking portrait of a bow-tied zebra seated at a concierge desk. "It feels so fine to be a pig," extols the next poem, while a cheerful porcine family wheels their mud-dripping luggage toward a beckoning squirrel in a bellhop uniform. The final poem in the triad, "An Interesting Fact," features another squirrel bellhop showing a kangaroo couple into their uncomfortably low-ceilinged hotel room.
Hoberman's skipping, dancing scansion longs to be read aloud, and her often brief line lengths should help newer readers feel confident doing so. The collection features eight new poems in addition to 60 previously published works spanning 65 years, all of which have a fresh, timeless feel. Frazee's pencil and watercolor illustrations add elements of whimsy, and her stories are pitched perfectly to play with the text. The joy of wordplay, rhyme, and rhythm shine in every entry, ready to usher children into the magic and possible humor of the poetic form. Adults are welcome, too; please leave seriousness at coat check. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager, Allen County Public Library