Ashley Bryan has hand-selected a dozen poems by Nikki Giovanni that cover the theme, “I Am Loved” then illustrated with their signature style artwork. Other than saying how beautiful the poems are or saying how amazing Giovanni’s words are, there is little to say about the lyricalness of them. They are classic Giovanni. They portray depth, feeling and show how much Giovanni cares about the theme and the subject. Other than saying how beautiful the illustrations are or saying how amazing Bryan’s work is, there […]
Mama’s real upset now.
In the first country I lived in we had these small packets of liquorice called GaJol. They were my favourite, because I like liquorice, but also because on the back of each packet was a small joke, a word play or a fancy quote. Sometimes I would tear one off and keep them, but most of the time I just read them and threw them away, and the ones I kept would disappear as well – into the cracks of furniture and pockets and books. […]
I’m not fat, I’m a bigger breed.
Interlude! I Could Pee On This is a short book of poetry “written by cats.” I bought it for a friend in love with her cat, and it’s a delight. I mean, it’s not life-altering at all. But it’s a solid laugh, and a quality diversion. It took me all of half an hour to read it cover to cover, so it feels like a bit of a cheat. But I read all the words, and I giggled my face off, and then when I […]
Cats are Adorable Jerks
This is my cat, Freya: Don’t be fooled by her incredible cuteness; if you look closely around the eyes you can see the crazy demon hell-beast lurking within. Freya is seven pounds of psychotic, terrifying cat piss just waiting to soil your favorite pair of shoes….or in my case, anything that looks like it could remotely cost me my security deposit. For almost two years, roommate faintingviolet and I have endured a perpetual minefield of pee-pee pads and decoy litter boxes shoved in what we hoped […]
How to Be Perfect
Rating: 5/5 Summary: How can you be perfect? Grades, looks, image, career? For Cara, it’s perfect grades and perfect credentials, all to get into Stanford to appease her parents, especially after her brother Conner went over the deep end from the pressure. For Kendra, it’s looks. She knows she doesn’t have the same academic prowess as some of her peers so she must keep a perfect face. To reach her dreams of modeling she’ll do anything, including dieting, intense exercising and taking pills. Sean […]
The Pop-Up Video of Poetry!
In last year’s CBR, I tried to hype National Poetry Month by reviewing several books of poetry. This year, in anticipation of doing the same thing, I bought several new collections of poems and dug out some books from my personal library that I had never gotten around to reading. Sadly, I neglected to notice that April was National Poetry Month. I completely missed it by two months. So, I will have to make my own thirty days of poetry. First up is Gary Soto’s A […]