Body Music: Poems About the Noises Your Body Makes

Yolen and Van Cleave give voice to bodily noises—from butts that “BOOM” to giggles and gasps—in a riotously silly poetry collection perfectly tuned to a toilet humor–loving audience. Describing incidental body noises such as “bumbling,/ crumbling, rumbling, stumbling” stomachs, the authors capitalize on explosive consonants and rhythms to embed a snappy musicality in the text. They strike a balance between education and absurdity, pairing the poems with scientific facts and related trivia on topics including music made with bodies (“West Africa’s hambone, Ethiopian armpit music”), wheezing snakes, and a late 19th-century Parisian “fartiste.” With bold lines and dramatic color blocking, San Vicente’s artwork features disproportionate, angular figures of various skin tones with exaggerated facial expressions and cartoonish physicality, amplifying the raucous energy of this over-the-top collection. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)