A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play
“Everything’s a blast / When you do it really fast.” From playing jacks or hopscotch on the city sidewalk to jumping rope (“It’s the slap / slap / slap / of two jump ropes when they touch”), the sounds of the rhyming words are part of the fun in this picture-book poetry collection, and the broad, colorful, digitally colored spreads show kids in uproarious motion together, barreling down a hill and hanging upside down on the swings, and also absorbed in imaginative play, from hide-and-seek in the jungle to making the title’s discovery that a stick has multiple possibilities for games. Even the youngest children will recognize the hands-on enjoyment of “making soup” with mud, grass, stones, and more. After all the wild activity, the book’s climax is quiet: stargazing with Dad from a window before sleep. Fun for sharing and acting out many times over, at home and in playgroups. Preschool-Grade 1. --Hazel Rochman