Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems
Kindergarten-Grade 4-George has penned 30 sublimely simple poems that capture  the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations of a family's camping  trip, from pitching the tent to pulling up stakes and returning  home. All of the selections convey a child-focused sense of  wonder as the campers explore the lakefront and surrounding  terrain, enjoy the marvels of the natural world, relish meals  round the campfire, and toast marshmallows ("This is art-/a time  of serious reflection/as my pillowed confection/slowly reaches  golden perfection"). The poems are varied and inventive, replete  with marvelous images and universal truths. There's even a  selection devoted to the "Mosquito Song." Each one is  accompanied by a well-executed and evocative acrylic painting.  Some of Kiesler's artwork sweeps across double pages to provide  a dramatic vista-a meandering hiking trail, a field of wild  mustard, a star-studded night sky-while other pictures reveal  small, but equally telling details. In "Flannel," the child is  shown holding her pine-, smoke-, and moss-scented camping shirt  to her face, paired with the words, "I keep it hidden/in my  bottom drawer-/where no one will find it/and wash away/my  memories." A terrific idyll for summertime sharing, even for  confirmed couch potatoes.Luann Toth, School Library JournalCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.