Technically, It's Not My Fault: Concrete Poems
Starred Review. Grade 4-8–Grandits combines technical brilliance and goofy good humor to provide an accessible, fun-filled collection of poems, dramatically brought to life through a brilliant book design. The eye-catching title selection, an account of a science experiment gone astray, appears on the front cover and its messy aftermath, a squashed tomato, winds up on the back. Simple drawings, varied typefaces, unusual arrangements of text, and different colors are used to call attention to the words. Grandits crafts an 11-year-old protagonist, Robert, whose perspective throughout is authentically adolescent. He is both immature and intelligent, and delights in all things gross as can be seen in such offerings as "The Autobiography of Murray the Fart," "Spew Machine," and "Sick Day." "TyrannosaurBus Rex" features a predatory cartoon school bus munching its way along its route: "More children. More sacrifices./Yum." This book doesn't reach the masterful collaboration of Paul B. Janeczko and Chris Raschka'sA Poke in the I(Candlewick, 2001), but most readers will still love it.–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.