Moving through the worlds of school, home and neighborhood, 20 short poems from Arnold Adoff look at classroom crushes, playground romances, the essence of family relationships and more with humor and touching sincerity. Each poem is structured as a love letter, complete with salutation and closure. "Dear Playground Snow Girl"begins one poem that is signed "Your Frozen Friend: / Frosty the Snow Boy."Another that starts "Dear Teacher"and written in the voice of a shy student closes with "Yours As a Mouse."The poems focusing on families include "Dear Gram:"in which a boy who loves his grandmother's cookies concludes that "I am / even / full of love / when all your / jars are empty."With illustrations rendered in a variety of media, from torn paper and found-object collage to painting to photographs, Lisa Desimini has created a distinctive, clever work of art to accompany each amusing, appealing poem. (Ages 9-12)