I Saw an Invisible Lion Today is packed with poems on subjects ranging from grandmothers to muzaloos to make you giggle and howl. The author explains how the rhyming patterns of quatrains work, and shows some of the many ways they can be written.

I really love poetry books that will draw children in and get them to love reading and writing poetry. This book will do just that.

Brian Cleary first explains what a Quatrain is and how to write one, then he does just that. The poems are in varying rhyming patterns as well as on varying topics. There are topics to delight a wide range of audience. He also shows that they can be short (one stanza) or much longer. The illustrations are wonderful and give the reader an idea of what the author is seeing when he writes the quatrain.

At the end of the book he gives the names of other books on poetry to explore as well as some websites including one containing child written poetry. A must for school libraries and classrooms.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This humorous collection of twenty-two quatrains will delight elementary students. Cleary begins the book with an explanation of the poetry form quatrain. The collection includes nonsense poems on invisible creatures and the "muzzaloo store" as well as grammatical poems on adjectives and the thesaurus. Richard Watson's cartoon illustrations complement the text, adding to the appeal. Under each poem, the rhyming scheme is clearly identified, making each poem useful for teaching purposes. ( )

Poetry, humor, POE