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The unmistakable signs of another school year are in the air -- mothers taking their kids for physicals, ads for school clothes in the newspapers, big displays of pencils and paper in Wal-mart and of lunch boxes in the grocery. Some people think the year starts on January 1, but every school-age child knows it really begins when school opens.All the things kids encounter at school, from the bus to homework, are treated poetically in "School Supplies." Poet Lee Bennett Hopkins has selected 16 poems, none long, each about a different item, to bring the sights and smells of school to mind.
The poems are excitingly illustrated by Renee Flower. She uses lots of bright colors, stylized characters and personified supplies to fill the pages from edge to edge -- the ballpoint pen "dances" to leave her footprints of words, the popsicle sticks and a new tube of glue build a village, the paper clips bite with their jaws.
And there's a strictly utilitarian use to "School Supplies" after your kids have enjoyed the poems. It makes a great shopping list for the new school year.
Etta Wilson is children's book review editor of BookPage.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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