Wise Up! Wise Down! Poems by John Agard and JonArno Lawson - Illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura - #bookreview

 

Two sharp-fanged fawn-coloured 

messengers stand ready

at the bars of my back gate.

What news have you brought me, wily duo?

***

Funny, thought-provoking and bursting with curiosity, Wise Up! Wise Down! is a lively conversation between two internationally renowned poets, illustrated by treasured artist Satoshi Kitamura.

How can laughter be more powerful than a sword? Why do days have names but not weeks? And do pigeons ever get a craving for cake? Two friends, internationally acclaimed poets John Agard and JonArno Lawson, take us on an inspiring, hilarious and wonderous journey through poetry, asking questions and attempting answers as they discover that life really is a forever and ever adventure.

***

This is a fun collection of poetry aimed at a middle grade audience.

Each of the poems have been illustrated in black and white, free hand style drawings and are every bit as fun and quirky as the poems.

Many of the poems are thought provoking causing the reader to ask questions such as:

"Do do-gooders do what's truly good?"

"How very bad is it to slouch at the dining room table?"

"What would a bald man want with a comb?"

Additionally, there are poems which encourage the reader to think about themselves, such as in the poem titled Don't Forget Yourself.

This is a lovely collection of poetry that children around the ages of seven to twelve years will enjoy.

***

ISBN: 978 1529501520

Publisher: Walker Books

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  144 (paperback)

About the Authors:

John Agard was brought up in Guyana, moving to Britain in 1977. He writes with his partner Grace Nichols, and both are well known as writers and performers of poetry for children and adults. They live in Sussex.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, and raised in neighboring Dundas, children’s poet JonArno Lawson earned a BA from McGill University. He is the author of more than ten books of poetry for children and adults, including Think Again (2010), Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box (2012), Enjoy It While It Hurts (2013), and Sidewalk Flowers (2015), a wordless picture book. As a nonsense poet, Lawson’s poems feature clever rhymes, whimsical images, and wordplay.

Lawson is a four-time winner of the Lion and Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Children’s Poetry. His books have received an Alcuin Award, a Prix Libbylit Award, and a Governor General’s Literary Award for Illustrated Children’s Books, among other distinctions. He has taught children’s poetry in the Children’s Literature Program at Simmons College and regularly facilitates workshops for children and adults. Lawson lives in Toronto with his family.

About the Illustrator:

Satoshi Kitamura is both an author and illustrator. He was born in 1956 in Tokyo. He says that when he was young he read comics and admits that these have had a great influence on his style. He says he was also influenced by anything visual from a tin of sardines to the fine art of the East and the West. He was not trained as an artist, but at the age of 19 began to do commercial work. He moved to London in 1979 and worked mainly designing greeting cards. He started illustrating for Andersen Press in 1981. At this time he had an exhibition of his work at the Neal Street Gallery in Covent Garden, which Klaus Flugge visited and showed him the text of Angry Arthur.

Angry Arthur, written by Hiawyn Oram, was published in 1982 to great acclaim, winning the Mother Goose Award in 1983 and the Japanese Picture Book Award. In 1989, UFO diary was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize, an award he later went on to win for Me and My Cat, which was also shortlisted for the Kurt Mashler Award. In 2006, Satoshi’s collaboration with Colin McNaughton, Once Upon an Ordinary School Day, won The Japan Picture Book Award for best translated book. Satoshi’s book, Millie’s Marvellous Hat, was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award in 2010.

(book and author media courtesy of Walker Books)

(author media courtesy The Poetry Foundation)

(illustrator media courtesy of Book Trust)

(all opinions are my own)