FOOD FIGHT: Poets Join the Fight Against Hunger With Poems to Favorite Foods

Thirty-three poets--including Lois Duncan, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Nikki Grimes, Joseph Bruchac, Jane Yolen, and Charlotte Zolotow--contribute new poems about different foods, in a volume that benefits Share Our Strength's effort to end hunger.

Grade 4-7. Children who pick this book by its title alone expecting lunchroom chaos within will be disappointed, unless they go on to read the subtitle (printed on two asparagus on the book jacket), which establishes the anthology's more serious nature. Thirty-three contemporary American poets contributed original selections about favorite foods and food-related activities in support of Share Our Strength (SOS), an antihunger organization. There are poems about mussels, chocolate, pretzels, pasta, artichokes, and other edibles. Most of the selections are rather bland. Some will evoke warm memories of special family celebrations, and a few will make readers chuckle. There are several tiny gems: W. Nicola-Lisa's "Salad Haiku," Liz Rosenberg's "The Fruit Bowl," and Paul B. Janeczko's "August Ice-Cream Cone Poem" ("Lick/quick"). Rosen's illustrations, done in watercolor and ink, are as erratic as the poems. At times, the artist seems to have tried to capture visually every image in a poem and has ended up overpowering the poem itself. The best illustrations are the small ones that leave lots of white space on the page. Well meaning, but uneven.?Carolyn Angus, The Claremont Graduate School, CA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

the poetry shelf A new crop of poetry books takes on a wild range of subjects, from pizza to the rain-making gods to the pleasures of milking a cow; they demonstrate how poetry can lend itself to joking, praying, yearning and simply experiencing the textures of life. A feast of odes to food, Food Fight: Poets Join the Fight Against Hunger with Poems to Favorite Foods, edited and illus. by Michael J. Rosen, benefits the anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength. The collection serves up a witty menu of verses, the light outnumbering the substantial: they include Jane Yolen's tribute to chocolate, Paul B. Janeczko's two-word "August Ice-Cream Cone Poem" ("Lick/ quick"), "Artijoke" by William Cole and W. Nicola-Lisa's "Salad Haiku." The art is rendered in a drab palette of unappetizing and unlifelike colors, however, undercutting the otherwise deft book design.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3^-6. Food is always an inviting topic, and these new poems by 35 children's writers "spill the beans" about the pleasure of eating and reading. Profits go to Share Our Strength (SOS), an anti-hunger organization. The contributors include some great children's writers, but most of them are not at their best here; and Rosen's big, bright, celebratory watercolors, though delicious to look at, tend to overwhelm the words, especially when the poem is printed right on the illustration. The best poems are wonderfully physical, for example, Paul Fleischman's account of how your teeth feel eating corn on the cob, and Charlotte Zolotow's four verses about the foods of each season. Then there's Paul Janeczko's two-line, two-word "August Ice-Cream Cone Poem": "Lick

Quick." Hazel Rochman