Explosion at the Poem Factory

“Why spend hours wrestling with rhymes when our prosodizer can find the perfect synonym with the flip of a switch?” Lukoff (When Aidan Became a Brother) imagines what would happen if poems were generated mechanically, in a factory. After electric pianos come to town, Kilmer leaves his position as a music teacher to take a job at the poem factory, where he learns the ins and outs of the job (“Pick a rhyme scheme, sprinkle in some similes, don’t overdo the refrains, always add alliteration”). When the factory explodes, Kilmer makes sure that the art form he has come to love survives. Hoffmann (Dirt Cheap) gives Kilmer a bowling-pin shape and a big, dramatic moustache. Acrylic, pastel, and colored pencil spreads mix industrial grays and browns and splashes of taffy pink to portray gears, conveyor belts, levers, and a chute labeled “similes” that spits out sheets of paper (“He sat like an unturned stone”). Liberal use of terms such as epithalmium and enjambment, both defined at book’s end, will draw precocious kids as well as adult poetry lovers to this friendly introduction to poetry and poetics. Extensive back matter gives examples of poetic forms and supplies a glossary of terms. Ages 6–9. [em](Apr.) [/em]