In this inventive poetry book, author Bob Raczka builds poems around single words. Each poem bears a one-word title, with the letters in the title word rearranged to form new words that comprise the text of the poem. The poem itself describes the object or idea represented by the poem’s title, as in “set is on / I sit” (“Televison”) and “fred / finds / ed” (“Friends”). The poems appear twice: first with the letters of each word lined up beneath their corresponding letters in the title, making for visual intrigue but a challenging read, and then, with a turn of the page, in lines that are laid out traditionally from left to right. Nancy Doniger’s spare red, black, and gray illustrations accompany an entertaining and interactive text that will puzzle and delight. (Ages 8–12)

Play with your words! A brand new poetic form that turns word puzzles into poetry.

Part anagram, part rebus, part riddle--these poems capture a scene from a child's daily life and present a puzzle to solve. Sometimes sweet and sometimes funny, but always clever, these poems are fun to read and even more fun for kids to write. Bob Raczka is a fresh, new voice in children's poetry who knows that fun and games can turn a poetry lesson into lemonade!