Review: BIG BAD AND A LITTLE BIT SCARY: POEMS THAT BITE BACK!, Module 4, Poetry

Zahares, Wade. 2001. BIG BAD AND A LITTLE BIT SCARY: POEMS THAT BITE BACK! New York: Penguin Putnum Books. ISBN # 0670035130

Big, Bad and a Little Bit Scary is a collection of poems which focus on nature’s more wild and dangerous animals. Children are curious about dangerous animals and they will not be disappointed with these poems. Each poem is quick and fun to read. The selections are full of great vocabulary, rhyme, alliteration, and cleverness such as in VIPER, by Eve Merriam: “viper…virulent villain, venomous, vile” and in THE PANTHER, by Ogden Nash, “if called by a panther, Don’t anther.” Each poem is displayed on two facing pages. The illustrations are magnificent. They portray the animals as very large and menacing. The eyes are bulging and the teeth are giant, sharp, and protruding. In THE SPARROW HAWK, by Russell Hoban, the shadow of a hawk is so large that it covers many times over the tiny field mouse which it is soaring over, and in OCTOPUS, the multiple rolling arms are covered with giant suction cups. The colors are dark and give an ominous feel. This selection goes beyond normal animal topics; it gives the readers a bit of spice and danger!