Keep a Pocket in Your Poem: Classic Poems and Playful Parodies

Former Children’s Poet Laureate Lewis gathers 13 poems, then pairs them with parodies that take the original works in unexpected directions, accompanied by Wright’s smudgy, naïf artwork. Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” becomes “Stopping by Fridge on a Hungry Evening” (“Whose mold this is I think I know,” it begins); Sandburg’s “Fog” inspires Lewis to write about hail; and an excerpt from Dickinson’s “ ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” takes a somber turn: “Grief is the thing with tissues.” Readers who take Lewis’s introductory suggestion to write their own parodies may learn how writing a good one requires a solid awareness of the source material, something Lewis clearly demonstrates with his clever, funny, and visceral responses. Ages 5–10. Illustrator’s agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Mar.)