Heartbeat (Imagine This!)

Touring the ticking innards of 12 creatures, ranging from pygmy shrews (“thought to have the world’s fastest heart rate”) to wood frogs that can still their hearts “for up to eight months,” Boyle uses free verse to creatively explore “the unmistakable sound of a tireless muscle.” Though the poems occasionally feel overlong, scattered rhymes, onomatopoeia, and line breaks give the lines rhythmic pulse: “In evergreen forests of the great Far North/ live black-masked wood frogs,/ whom you might hear chuckling/ (like a quacking duckling)/ in springtime and summer and fall.” The conclusion, centered on human hearts, leads to an explanation of “How Your Heart Works” with a diagram. Long’s crisp-edged, colorful pictures capture readily identifiable details: suckers on an octopus’s tentacles, patterned python scales, and a gorilla’s muscled chest. Ages 4–8. [em](Sept.) [/em]