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Twosomes: Love Poems from the Animal Kingdom
Do animals celebrate Valentine's Day? Nobody knows for sure. But this funny (and punny) little book imagines how some of them declare their love, affection, or friendship any day of the year."Nice to Meetcha! You smell delish!/Wanna share my water dish?" So asks one tail-thumping dog to another. Whereas a courting dolphin sings, "Come, leap with me and be my wife./You're the porpoise of my life." Ranging from dogs and cats and other pets to some you wouldn't want to pet, such as sharks and porcupines, acclaimed poet Marilyn Singer's captivating couplets and Lee Wildish's expressively humorous illustrations provide a Valentine's Day gift for kids who wouldn't be caught dead being lovey-dovey.
24 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
5 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Marilyn Singer
168 books101 followersMarilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.
In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.
Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.
Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.
In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.
Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.
Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
May 9, 2017
Short. Cute. Punny. YAS!
February 28, 2019
Super cute. Made us smile. Maybe a bit too short, but we like it.
November 10, 2020
A lovely pick me up ❤️
July 16, 2018
Cute, too short for my taste.
April 13, 2022
I thought this book was so cute, it seemed too adorable not to check out from the library. Each page is an adorable illustration of an animal(s) that the small poem is describing. I think it's cool how the poem took facts about that specific animal and made it into a small love poem. The poems remind me of what would be on the little valentine's day cards that you hand out in like 1st grade or something. I read this to a class of students, and they loved it! They thought it was absolutely hilarious, and the illustrations were fun to look at together.
March 31, 2019
This book shows how different animals show affection for each other. It shows how a touch can make a difference to the one you like. How sharing a meal and a laugh brighten up someone’ day. Learning how to get along as a team. All in all the book gives examples of relationships, and how to build them.
June 27, 2017
adorable!
October 7, 2017
Cuteeeeee!!!
October 17, 2019
Love this. My favorites are the dolphins! 🐬
August 12, 2011
This petite poetry book has a short, rhyming couplet for each animal love poem.
This would be a great read-aloud during Valentine's Day and also a good writing activity to have students pick an animal and write a twosome of their own.
Among my favorite twosomes:
Dogs:
Nice to meetcha! you smell delish!
Wanna share my water dish?
Porcupines:
Hugging you takes some practice.
So I'll start out with a cactus.
This would be a great read-aloud during Valentine's Day and also a good writing activity to have students pick an animal and write a twosome of their own.
Among my favorite twosomes:
Dogs:
Nice to meetcha! you smell delish!
Wanna share my water dish?
Porcupines:
Hugging you takes some practice.
So I'll start out with a cactus.
April 13, 2012
How do animals love? Read on and you'll find out.
What I thought: Too cute! Marilyn Singer may just be one of my favorite children's poets. The poems are simple--couplets really--and the illustrations are great. They are colorful and make good use of white space. My favorite poems are chameleons, elephants, and geese. My favorite illustrations are the cover, cats, and sharks.
Story Time Themes: Love, Valentine's Day, Animals
What I thought: Too cute! Marilyn Singer may just be one of my favorite children's poets. The poems are simple--couplets really--and the illustrations are great. They are colorful and make good use of white space. My favorite poems are chameleons, elephants, and geese. My favorite illustrations are the cover, cats, and sharks.
Story Time Themes: Love, Valentine's Day, Animals
September 30, 2011
So cute! Couplets from one animal to its mate. My ONLY crit of it as a kids' book is that the sweet spot for the humor feels older to me, adult in some place, because of the slang--hunk, etc. Still, even for the words that aren't common among kids today, they would recognize them and get them in context. Brilliant idea: love poems in couplets!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2012
Singer is too much fun in this 2011 collection of couplets dedicated to animals in love. And where else could you rhyme "you smell delish" with "want to share my water dish?" unless it was within the budding relationship of two dogs? Or a porcupine who says he will practice by snuggling up to a cactus. My favorite in the collection is the one just for elephants.
May 25, 2013
Cute, short poems, and a quick read--my kind of poetry book. Some silly and some clever, I enjoyed the animal puns. An interesting choice for a Beehive nominee, but I think kids will enjoy it. They will especially love its length.
January 8, 2011
very fun little book. Valentine's day, word play, poetry...
January 17, 2011
Short and sweet - kind of like a little box of Valentine's chocolate.
January 24, 2011
A little uneven, but overall pretty good. The short poems are ideal for story time use - think I'll use a few around Valentine's Day.
March 6, 2011
Very sweet text and cute illustrations. A perfect read for Valentine's Day! It will inspire readers to come up with their own twosomes!
April 10, 2011
Short and sweet, I loved it!
September 2, 2011
The horse rhyme and the shark rhyme are my favorite. Also a favorite with the kids.
September 15, 2011
Very cute!
September 28, 2011
This little book packs a lot of punch. Love how she uses language to mean two things (stable relationship) in some of the poems.
July 7, 2012
Cute, cheesy, fun :)
October 2, 2012
Very cute couplets and illustrations in a tiny little book - a lovely gift for Valentines Day.
May 22, 2013
Hilarious! Very creative way to tell poetry, from the perspective of an animal. Would recommend it for kids (especially boys) who do NOT want to read poetry.
August 14, 2013
Cleverly written couplet poems that showcase love between many different animals. Lots of punny rhymes abound. Cute and brief.
August 29, 2013
Two Cute
Two Sweet
Two Punny
Two Adorbs
<3 <3
Find some one that you heart, and read this book two-gether
Two Sweet
Two Punny
Two Adorbs
<3 <3
Find some one that you heart, and read this book two-gether
January 17, 2014
cute book for kids about animals falling in love
January 22, 2014
I liked the pictures more than the poems. The poems didn't really click with me. They weren't that funny or endearing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews