Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Florian,_Douglas" sorted by average review score:

insectlopedia
Published in Hardcover by Harcourt (01 March, 1998)
Author: Douglas Florian
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Great fun, even for kids who aren't "insect lovers"
This is a book of poems about insects. The poems are great; their content is funny and rhythmic. Through the poems we learn about the various insects. Some have very creative text formatting such as the inchworm; the text is shaped like a humped-up inchworm. The illustrations are very creative collages that are unique compared to most other children's books.

I began reading this when my first son was 2 years old and he loved the poems then and he loves them now. Neither of my children are otherwise very interested in reading about insects but this book captures their interest and they laugh hysterically at some of these poems. After reading these they have found some of the more unusual insects such as the walking stick outdoors and called it to my attention. We've owned the book for 3 years, every once in a while my now-5 year old will find it and get excitedly proclaim "we haven't read this in a long time" and begs me to read it again (and again and again).

Some of the insects featured are the inchworm, tick, walking stick, praying mantis, monarch butterfly, daddy long legs spider and army ants.

The poems are so much fun I don't mind reading the entire book two or three times in a row. A fun book to read to young children. This is good reading for just plain fun or to introduce poetry or to enhance learning about insects and nature.

It's great! (Ethan 5) It's Wonderful (Alissa 6)
We just love reading Insectlopedia! My 6 year old daughter andmy 5 year old son both think it is a great read. Ethan & Alissalike the poem about the Whirligig Beetles the best.

Excellent Book Filled with Info!
I read this book while sitting in the Dr.'s office this week. It was not only fun to read, but educational as well. At 27 I learned some interesting things about insects! And the illustrations are outstanding, especially for adults who can look further into the artwork.


lizards, frogs, and polliwogs
Published in School & Library Binding by Harcourt (2001)
Author: Douglas Florian
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Fabulous for reptile fans!
My two-year-old son is a *huge* reptile fan, and he loves this book. The playful language is wonderful, and it's an inspiring way to talk and think about different types of animals. It's one of those books that *I* love reading, too!

A rare find, like Loco for Lizards
This book takes an offbeat subject like lizards and makes the subject fun and entertaining, while it also informs. Very much like Jim Cherry's book, Loco for Lizards, a laugh-out-loud funny book that packs an amazing wealth of information in at the same time. Highly recommended!

Keen observations, delicate touch.
Florian delights! He's carefully observed the reptiles and amphibians in his book, and the poetry and collages are witty and subtle. This is good for kids and like great animation, terrific for herp-loving adults. --Ae Nash, Director, Colorado Reptile Rescue


bow wow meow meow: it's rhyming cats and dogs
Published in Hardcover by Harcourt Children's Books (01 April, 2003)
Author: Douglas Florian
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Bow Wow Meow Meow
As always, Mr. Florian writes and illustrates poetry on a young child's level. His poetry is short and to the point, and his illustrations are extremely creative. "The Poodles" and "The Dalmatian" is a great example of utilizing the features of the animal in the poem format. Mr. Florian gets young children excited about poetry and shows them that poetry can be uncomplicated and fun.

Twenty-one brief, humorous poems
Poet and painter Douglas Florian barks up the right tree in the young people poetry month release, "Bow Wow Meow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs." Twenty-one brief, humorous poems about a kennel of dog and cat varieties playfully prowl its pages, accompanied by childlike watercolor portraits of each species being analyzed in verse. (Another quirky pleasure comes from the fact that Florian's loose, playful watercolors were painted on primed brown paper bags with bits of collage.) Setting the stage for the book's first half is "Dog Log" with its deadpan "to do" list of the average dog: "Rolled out of bed./ Scratched my head./ Brought the mail./ Wagged my tail.../ Chewed a shoe --/ Table, too." The next ten spreads all focus on a different doggie from the bulldog to wolf. Typical is "The Chihuahua" which manages to hilariously evoke the sound of the little beast: "Chihuahua seems a sorry sight:/ So small in stature, weight, and height./ But it can bark a brouhaha: / Chi-hua! hua! hua! hua! hua! hua! hua!" Segregating the cats from the dogs, the second half is devoted to the felines, starting with the lilting "Cat Chat" introduction, and ends with "The Black Panther": "Black on black / With big eyes green --- / At night the panther's sight is keen,/ A stalking shadow, sly and sleek,/ That every night plays hide-and-seek." As a poetry collection, this is the best-conceived, least-pretentious and most-fun work in years. The idea is simplicity at its best, perfectly conceived and cleverly executed with a just-right balance of smarts and playfulness. The witty, insightful nature of the poems is sure to delight all ages, particularly fans of ee cummings, Ogden Nash and Bennett Cerf. Even concrete poetry admirers will pleasantly note the subtly original ways in which simple type layouts are occasionally used to enhance the rhythms and rhymes, such as the lines of "The Poodles" which are each set in a tight swirl, mimicking their subject's "oodles and oodles or curls." Doggone good. To borrow a pun from Florian, it would "puzzle ocelot" if this didn't end up an award-winner by year's end.

Fabulous Florian
This clever collection of 21 dog and cat ditties by children's poet Douglas Florian is one of his best yet - how does he do it?! To be as talented an author as an illustrator is a double blessing for readers of this hilarious new collection. From the subtitle " It's rhyming cats and dogs", to the shape poetry detail of the dalmatian and poodle poems, this consistently funny and original look at cats and dogs is as appealing to this adult reader as it is to younger listeners. A must-have for parent and child reading together and laughing times, even if you're not a pet owner!


Student Study Guide to Accompany Multimedia Cases in Reading Education
Published in Paperback by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages (31 August, 1998)
Authors: Victoria J. Risko and Charles K. Kinzer
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Beast Feast
It is very funny. I'll give the The Walrus In His Chair a "two thumbs up." I memorized The Bat for a Poetry Reading for school. I give The Barracuda some very earth-eating competition. niknnik (Evan, 9)


Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (09 January, 2001)
Author: Annie Hawes
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Filled with funny poems!
Douglas Florian writes about all sorts of things in his poems: anacondas, squares, elephants wearing pants, and much, much, more! His poems take all different shapes and sizes too: circles, squares, people, and many other fun shapes. If you like to read nonsense poems, you'll absolutely love this book. Bing Bang Boing is good for grades 2-4.

Great Book
I liked this book and thought it had some good poems like Chess Mess and Melt Down.


Nature Walk
Published in Library Binding by Greenwillow (1989)
Authors: Douglas Florain and Douglas Florian
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Excellent nature book
Nature Walk is a very clever, well-put-together book suitable for school and at-home reading. The large-print text is simple and rhyming, which makes it good for the beginning reader. Used as a read-aloud lap book, it is good for preschoolers, and the short rhyme holds their attention. I would read it to toddlers, too--can you find the rabbit hidden on each page? At the back of the book is an illustrated list of plants and animals for readers to find, a good activity for parent and child to do together. The oil pastel illustrations are a good art role model for children, since the medium looks like the crayons that most children draw with. I teach a class on writing children's nature literature, and use this book, along with Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, to open my first session.


Chameleon: A Novel
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins (26 March, 2002)
Author: Mark Burnell
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The Very Best Time of the Year.....
Summer, the very best season of the year, is captured in Douglas Florian's marvelous new poetry collection, Summersaults. These 28 poems evoke the sheer joy of sizzling, shimmering, simmering, hazy, hot summer days, and the carefree fun of baseball, swimming, buzzing bees, and annoying flies, ocean waves, ice-cream cones, scooters, bikes and roller skates, fireflies, jumping rope, thunderstorms, and campfires. Mr Florian's delightful, engaging, rhyming verses are full of imagery, wordplay, energy and puns, and complemented by his cheerful childlike artwork in summer tones of bright greens, yellows, and blues. Together word and art deliver the magic of summer in all its simple splendor. Perfect for children of all ages, Summersaults is a charming little treasure, best read aloud and shared, that can take the coldest, snowiest day of the year, and turn it into a blazing, sun-filled day at the beach.


Something Happened and I'm Scared to Tell: A Book for Young Victims of Abuse
Published in Paperback by Parenting Pr (1987)
Authors: Patricia Kehoe and Carol Deach
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Ages 4-8? Should be 4 to 80!
An excellent collection of poems about winter - the joys and woes. A favorite is the poem by the same title, Winter Eyes. Rich language and stunning imagery in a deceptively simple form. I'm sending it to my mother, who recently left Minnesota for New Mexico, she can always have the best of winter with this book.


mammalabilia
Published in School & Library Binding by Harcourt (2000)
Author: Douglas Florian
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good, but not his best
While the poems are fun and engaging, there is far less scientific information given than in some of his other works. "The Beaver" is a brilliant four line (four hyphenated words) poem packed with information, while "The Aardvarks" relays nothing except some clever spellings. If you must pick only one Douglas Florian book, "Beast Feast" or "Insectlopedia" would be much better choices.

For young children
This book is for young children just starting to read. The color illustrations are in a somewhat simplistic (primative) are form, and the poems are short (a lot of white space in the book). Overall, it is kept simple for young children, but some of the phonetic spellings are probably not the best for proper teaching.

Wonderful - Even for an infant
My daughter is only 5 months old, however, the rhythm of the poems in Mammalabilia keeps her attention. We are able to read the whole book before she rolls away. She finds the large pictures to be captivating and "talks" right along with me as I read to her. I believe that this is a book she can grow with. What a wonderful way to introduct poetry to young children!


Otto Dix : Landschaften
Published in Unknown Binding by Gessler ()
Author: Michael Kicherer
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A welcome gift for your favorite food-loving kid!
We picked up a few copies of this charming picture book as gifts for the very young children of our food-loving friends, and both kids and parents alike found it a delightful way to look at the life of a chef!


Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

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