Beastly Verse

by JooHee Yoon

Poetry and children belong together, and for a long time, the music and playfulness of verse wove itself through children's days and lives. Beastly Verse aims to help return the wonder of poetry to children's lives through sixteen exquisitely illustrated poems, four of which have the surprise and pleasure of being foldouts. Consisting of playful as well as powerfully memorable poems, Beastly Verse transports the reader into a richly worded world of tigers, hummingbirds, owls, elephants, pelicans, yaks, snails, and even telephones! A playful romp through verse, rhyme, and gorgeous images, this book carries children into the poetic realm in a way that is not only fun and inviting, but inspiring as well! Representing poems from Anonymous, as well as some lesser well-known poets, this volume also includes poems from Lewis Carroll, William Blake, Robert Desnos, Hilaire Belloc, William Cowper, Christina Rossetti, and D.H. Lawrence. Both short and long, these poems can be read and reread, committed to memory and enjoyed all life long.JooHee Yoon is an illustrator and printmaker committed to the art of bookmaking. Her art work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker Magazine, Le Monde, and many other international publications. She also exhibits her original drawings and prints in gallery shows around the world and was the recipient of the Ars en Fabula Grant from the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Animals, Childrens, Nonfiction, Art, Kids

Hardcover

First published April 7, 2015

Reviews

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry. What’s the point? I say this as a woman who simultaneously gets poetry and doesn’t get it. I get that it’s important, of course. I only need to watch my three-year-old daughter come up with an ever increasing and creative series of bouncy rhymes to understand their use. But what I don’t get is Poetry with a capital “P”. I have come to accept this as a failing on my own part. And to be fair, there are works of poetry that I like. They just all seem to be for the milk teeth set. With that in mind I was particularly pleased to see Beastly Verse, illustrated by Joohee Yoon. Full of fabulous classic poems and art that manages to combined a distinctive color palette with eye-popping art, Yoon’s creates a world that takes the madcap energy of Dr. Seuss and combines it with the classic printmaking techniques of a fine artist. The end result keeps child readers on the edge of their seats with adults peering over their shoulders, hungry for more.

As I mentioned, the resident three-year-old is much enamored of poetry. This is good because it makes her an apt test subject for my own curiosity. I should mention that my goal in life is to NOT become the blogger who uses her children to determine the value of one book or another. That said, the temptation to plumb their little minds can sometimes prove irresistible. Now Beastly Verse is not specifically aimed at the preschooler set. With poems like William Blake’s “The Tiger” and “Humming-Bird” by D.H. Lawrence, the verse can at times exceed a young child’s grasp. That said, none of the poems collected here are very long, and the art is so entrancing that the normal fidgets just tend to fade away as you turn the pages. My daughter did find that some of the more frightening images, say of the carnivorous hummingbird or the spangled pandemonium, were enough to put her off. Fortunately, each scary image is hidden beneath a clever gatefold. If the reader does not want to see the face of a tiger tiger burning bright, they needn’t open the fold at all. Not only is it a beautiful technique, it makes the book appropriate for all ages. Clever.

One might not associate Yoon’s particular brand of yellows reds, oranges, greens, and blues with evocative prints. Yet time and again I was struck by the entrancing beauty of the pages. Yoon’s traditional printmaking techniques can bring to life the hot steam that rises even in the coolest shade of a tiger’s jungle. Another page and Lewis Carroll’s “The Crocodile” lingers below the surface of the water, his innards heaving with “little fishes”. Yoon saves the best for last, though, with a poem I’d not come across before. “Dream Song” by Walter de la Mare is set in the gleam of “Sunlight, moonlight / Twilight, starlight” when the sun is just a sliver of a white hot crescent on the horizon. All the forest is lit by the orange and red rays, and out of a tree pokes the head of a single owl. The hypnotic verses speaking of “wild waste places far away” mix with the image, conjuring up the moment moviemakers call “magic hour”.

Mind you, there is always a nightmarish mirror image to each seemingly sweet picture. The eyeless caterpillar all maw and teeth is turned, on the next page, into a beautiful but equally unnerving butterfly. Only Yoon, as far as I’m concerned, could have brought us the horrific implications of “The Humming-Bird” and its existence “Before anything had a soul.” Even the last seemingly innocuous image of Captain Jonathan cooking himself an egg takes on a dire cast when you realize it’s that of a pelican (of the poem “The Pelican” by Robert Desnos) he’s about to devour.

This is by no means the first collection of animal poetry to grace our shelves. It was only two or three years ago that J. Patrick Lewis helped to collect the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. Many of the poems found in this book can be found in that one as well. However, while that book seemed to be going for sheer girth, Yoon’s selections here are carefully positioned. I was interested in the layout in particular. You begin with the aforementioned Carroll poem (which seems appropriate since a manic smiling cat graces the title page) and then transition into a nursery rhyme, a bit of typical Ogden Nash flippery (only three lines long), and then Blake’s best-known poem. Variety of length keeps the poems eclectic and interesting to read. They keep you guessing as well. You never quite know what kind of poem will come next.

Having read the deliciously multicultural Over the Hills and Far Away, collected by Elizabeth Hammill, it is difficult to pick up a collected work of poetry without hankering for a similar experience. Aside from artist Joohee Yoon’s own name and the fact that Robert Desnos was Jewish, there is very little in this collection that isn’t white and American/European. The reasons for this may have something to do with permissions. Every poem in this book, with the exception of a few, is in the public domain. None were commissioned for the book specifically. Mind you, it would have been possible for the book to follow Hammill’s lead and locate international public domain animal poems of one sort or another written specifically for children. It is therefore up to the reading public to ascertain if the book stands stronger as a collection of similar types of poetry or if it would have benefited from a bit of variety here and there.

In the end, it’s a beautiful piece. Children’s rooms are no strangers to beautiful art in their poetry collections, but Yoon’s distinctive style is hard to compare to anyone. The only poet/illustrator with the same energy that comes to mind (and that writes for kids) would have to be Calef Brown. And as debuts go, this is a stunner. A truly inventive and original collection that deepens with every additional read. Kids like it. Adults like it. It could have benefited from some diversity, absolutely. Overall, however, there are few things like it on our shelves. An inspiration.

For ages 3 and up.

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an illustrator and printmaker, Yoon work is always a delight. This time, she has painstakingly chosen a small range of poems on the theme of animals to illustrate. From owls to yaks and from de la Mare to Rossetti, Yoon reimagines moments from each poem, her print humorously glows with her bright and engaging illustrations and some sections invite the reader to pull open pages in order to reveal the animal in all its majesty.

[Nathalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book of children's poetry by various authors such as Christina Rossetti and Ogden Nash. It is a new book but illustrated to appear old style. I didn't like it as much as I thought I did. Here is my favorite:

THE EEL

I don't mind eels
Except as meals.
And the way they feels.

by Ogden Nash

I happen to have eaten eels as a child and never wanted to repeat the experience as an adult. Tastes very fishy with flesh more like a chicken and it does look like a snake...

My husband liked the following:

ELETELEPHONY

Once there was an elephant
Who tried to use the telephant
No! No! I mean an elephone
(Dear me I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right,)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee-
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

by Laura E. Richards

I had marked that one as one to share in our weekly poem fest because it was fun to read outloud.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compilation of famous animal poems written by many different authors. I was pleased to find two of my all time fave poems included, Eletelephony and The Spangled Pandemonium


(not a page from the book)

I liked how there was only one poem on each page. Poetry is always more enjoyable to read when it's not squished onto pages. The poems chosen were delightful but I wasn't a huge fan of the artwork.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixteen previously published poems about animals, including "The Crocodile" by Lewis Carroll, "The Tiger" by William Blake, and my personal favorite for sharing--the hilarious and fun to read--"Eletelephony" by Laura Richards make this book delightful. Not only are the verses fun to revisit or visit for the first time, but the illustrations are literally drenched with color. Young readers and their parents will also enjoy the four gatefolds that expand the book's images.

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colorfully illustrated poems about beasts and animals. The best two are Eletelephony and The Snail.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents sixteen poems by different authors about various animals, featured along with artwork "created by hand drawing and computer techniques. Three Pantone colors were used in the printing of this book," creating a woodblock print style of illustrations that have unique layers of colors and often silly designs.

Many of the poems were familiar to me, written by authors such as Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash, William Blake, and D.H. Lawrence. Others were less so, but still entertaining.

Overall, it's a fun, fast read and I really enjoyed the overlays of the three colors and designs. Some of the pages are fold outs that give a bigger, often changed picture that complements the poem with which it is paired.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of children's poetry and rhymes about animals. The illustrations are vibrant and colorful...actually maybe a little bit too colorful. Like maybe your eyes will bleed if you look at it for too long.



But otherwise I think it would make for a fun read aloud to kids and an excellent introduction to poetry.

[Lectora de Metro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hermosas ilustraciones y excelente libro para acercar la poesía a las infancias. El trabajo de Joohee Yoon es impresionante!

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bright, primitive-style illustrations perfectly complement short animal poems by the likes of Lewis Carroll and Walter de la Mare. An intriguing collection that may serve to spark an interest in poetry in young people and their grown ups.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the bright, distinctive, fanciful graphic illustrations that accompany these animal poems by a variety of writers. My favorite poem might be "The Pelican" by Robert Desnos--new to me. Impressed with every single page of graphics.

Would kids like it?

4.5 stars

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich, gleefully illustrated and beautifully designed collection (including some great gatefolds) of playful verse about critters by such poets as William Blake, Lewis Carroll, D.H. Lawrence, and Christina Rossetti.

[Emily Scheinman]

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! A collection of fanciful poems matched with bold color art work. Releasing in April; perfect for poetry celebrations and a must have for your home library

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun gatefolds!

[Fred Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It all started when I read The Nonsense Book of Nonsense, a book of children's poems from my childhood compiled by Jay Heavilin. I searched my library’s catalogue for the various authors represented in that collection. One hit that I got was on Laura E. Richards: the book Beastly Verse. Her poem, Eletelephony, is included in this collection. This poem must be a challenge for translators, because I found four articles in Worldcat about translating it. I skipped reading the articles about translating it into Polish, Italian, and Hebrew since I don’t know anything about those languages. The article Find, Fand - Elefant. Elephantine Funambulism in Translating Laura E. Richards's "Eletelephony," by Tobias Larenz is about translating Eletelephony into German, which is a language I have a little bit of experience with. The article talks quite a bit about the differences in word stresses between the English words "elephant" and "telephone," and the German words "Elefant" and "Telefon."

I really enjoyed the poems by Laura E. Richards in The Nonsense Book of Nonsense, and I really enjoyed Eletelephony as well. Another notable poem from Beastly Verse was the Tiger by William Blake, a poem I was familiar with from other collections. A poet as notable as Blake is D. H. Lawrence, whose poem Humming-Bird is included in this collection. Other poets in this collection whose names I was familiar with, but who are not as notable as Blake and Lawrence, I think, are Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash, and Hilaire Belloc. Poets I was not familiar with at all were Carolyn Wells, William Cowper, Palmer Brown, Christina Rossetti, Eileen Matthias, and Walter de la Mare.

The point of the book is not the poems, but the vibrant illustrations. They look like paintings, but this was not the method used to create them. Joohee Yoon describes the method used on this blog post: https://blog.picturebookmakers.com/po...

I wish I had known about this book when my grandkids were a bit younger. Beastly Verse is recommended for children 4-8 and my grandkids are about to turn 14 and 12.

[Michael Wager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joohee Yoon has compiled and illustrated this collection of animal poems, in a wide variety of forms. Poems include “The Tiger” by William Blake, “Eletelephony” by Laura E. Richards, “Humming-Bird” by D. H. Lawrence, and “The Yak” by Hilaire Belloc. Illustrations are abstract, done with childlike drawings and primary color layering.

Yoon has put together an excellent selection of poems for children in this book, with a wonderful variety of flavors and personalities. The book ranges from Ogden Nash’s three-line poem “The Eel” to William Blake’s famous “The Tiger”. The poems include some very fun ones as well, such as “Eletelephony” by Laura E. Richards and “The Pelican” by Robert Desnos (although I feel like the translation of this one that is used is disappointing; it doesn’t keep any of the rhythm or rhyme of the original French version). The illustrations to me are less appealing than the poems. While Yoon’s techniques are meant to resemble children’s drawings, and her use of only three colors is interesting and a bit clever, I felt that overall the illustrations come off as sloppy and ugly.

[YingYu Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For winter and spring, my kids and I try to approach different poetry books. This pictured verse collection compiles almost poems that illustrate different kinds of animals. Not sure how the artist made the compilation, but the overall quality, along with the quality and texture of the book, made an astounding piece for family reading or individual collection.

As an always admirer of William Blake, "The Tygre" is the most known. I am happily introducing William Blake and the imagery of his poem with Yoon's vibrant work.

And for my wonderfully zany little ones (6 & 6), a tongue twister like "Eletelephony" is their favorite:

ELETELEPHONY

Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant,
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone --
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee --
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

Laura E. Richards

In addition to the totemic representation of the poems, Yoon's other works are hard to miss. We first recognized her other work "The Tiger Who Would Be King" and was immediately drawn into her drawings. Don't miss that one if you like this verse too!

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sixteen poems by fourteen notable authors and two anonymous ones have been complied and illustrated by printmaker and graphic designer Yoon. It’s a feast for the eyes. On the copyright page it reads, “The artwork in this book was created by hand drawing and computer techniques. Three Pantone colors were used in the printing of this book.” The visual effect is an overlay of vivid block prints. Yoon, who designed the volume, in addition to illustrating it, provides a continuing visual narrative for William Blake’s tiger and D. H. Lawrence’s humming-bird using dramatic gatefolds that unfold to show the ferocity of the creatures. She uses the same technique to show the chaos resulting from a muddled elephant’s indoor use of a landline telephone in Laura E. Richards’s humorous “Eletephony.” This book is filled with color, delight, and excitement.

[Hallie Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beastly Verse has multiple poems in it. Each poem is about something completely different. Each poem also has different rhyming patterns. This is something that you could use with students to get them to identify the different rhyming patterns on each page. The illustrations are amazing. Just by looking at them you can see what the story is behind it. They are detailed, bright and colorful. This makes the pages interesting and helps you really see the meaning in each poem. The illustrations are all by JooHee Yoon while each poem has a different author. I find this interesting because that mean that the illustrator created those pictures just by reading the poem. I would recommend this to a teacher focused on the rhyming patterns for her students because there are many different patterns throughout this book.

[Delaney Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: poetry
Grade range: K-5
I think that the poems in this book could be read and used at any level of elementary school. Although some of the poems were a little more difficult, there were some that were more simple. Therefore, this could be used at many different grade levels. It is not a book that you would necessarily sit down and read through the whole thing with your class. It would be good book to pick through and find different poems that are applicable to your grade level, or maybe ones that tie in with the lesson. I love that these tell about the “lives” of many different animals. It helps describe how various animals look and live.

[Megan Hosinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Poetry
Grade Level: K-3
This is a really good book of poems about animals. I like how the poems are really entertaining to read, and they described animals in a fun way. I also liked that there are a bunch of different kinds of animals in this book, including tigers, elephants, and snails. The illustrations in this book are really great, and they allow the poems to come to life. I especially liked the illustration of the butterfly, and I thought it was really beautiful like the other illustrations. Really great book!

[Jennifer Ruvalcaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Poetry
Grade Level: Preschool-3
What I love about this book were the illustrations and how some poem created the animal they were describing. This book is more of choosing a poem from the book not reading it all in one sitting for younger readers. It can be use to open or close the classroom. As you are reading the poem, children can draw on how they think the animal looks through their ears.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mostly liked the illustrations- vibrant, psychedelic-colored prints of animals. But I didn't realize the poems were a collection of what I would largely call "oldies." Nothing wrong with a little 'Tiger tiger burning bright' but I was hoping for something fun and modern to accompany the illustrations. Just not for me.

[Emili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry

1-3rd grade reading levels

The poets in this book have a way with words! The poetry is so endearing and inviting. This book makes me want to grab a cup of coffee and sit and listen to these poems. As much as I liked the poetry, I thought the illustrations were even better. They are so visually appealing. Joohee Yoon is an extremely talented artist.

[Allison Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primary

Poetry

I love that this story was more of a collection. Different poems about animals, each one drawing you in. The illustrations also added so much to the overall book. I'm only giving it a 3/5 because it hasn't been my favorite, but it was still very unique and interestingly written for children.

[Taylor Relacion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beastly Verse is a book that is composed of a compilation of famous animal poems written by various authors. There are sixteen poems with colorfully illustrated pictures. My favorite poem from the book had to be Eletelephony by Laura Richards. I would recommend this book for younger elementary grade levels because the content isn't heavy at all and would be very easy for younger children to follow.
I would use this in my classroom as a read aloud or if I were introducing the topic of poetry to younger grade levels. I enjoyed the colorful images and the fact that there is only one poem on each page. I enjoyed the rhyming.

[Jordyn Kilmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: poetry grade: 1-4
This has a cute book full of poetry about animals. The poems are cute and interesting, but the real treasure of this book is the illustrations. I loved seeing the art throughout the book and the wonderful fun ways they’re portrayed. I love this story and would definitely recommend it!

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally include picture books in my Goodreads, but I wanted to note this little gem. From William Blake, to Ogden Nash, Helaire Belloc, Christina Rosetti, and more, it is a fun collection of poems about creatures both real and imaginary. The edition at my local library also is very satisfying texturally, with nice thick papery pages.

[Gloria Linkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry
2nd- 3rd grade reading level
This book is amazing because it has multiple poems in one book. I love how fun the poems are and the fun illustrations. An activity with this book you can use is read a poem a day. This can get students involve in the activity and explain what poetry is.

[Susan]

Great book combining classic poems with fun abstract drawings (paintings?) that really help kids picture and enjoy the imagery.

My son and I both agreed that the Spangled Pandemonium is our favorite!