An Eyeball in My Garden: And Other Spine-Tingling Poems
Gr 4-6–These 44 poems cover all things creepy in a variety of ways. Some of them are unsettling, such as “The Corner,” in which a mysterious “no-shape” sits in the corner of the room, “A No-Shape./A hint of eyes,/A dark you cannot see out of.” Others are funny, like “Ghost Fish,” which tells of the ghost of a dead pet goldfish that haunts the toilet, determined not to be forgotten. Still others revel in grossness. “Mummy's Menu” features dishes like “Kidney stew with chunks of spine,/Pickled brains in zesty brine.” Each poem is decorated with a humorous or macabre black-and-white drawing. The collection straddles the line between scary and innocently goofy, and some of the selections are a little inconsistent. For larger poetry collections.–Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MAα(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.