Poetry Friday- Dino Poet

Angleberger, Tom. Dino Poet 
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
March 25, 2025 by Abrams Fanfare

Dinosaur is writing a poem about eating Frog, who takes exception not only to the subject of the poem, but also the flowery and unrealistic language being used. In between being attacked by other dinosaurs (each chapter starts with the name of one), Frog teaches Dinosaur how to write a poem. Instead of forcing rhymes about the noises a pterodactyl making, for example (they don't "sweetly sing", they skronk!), Frog advises that Dinosaur should write about how he FELT about what he saw. Rhymes are nice, but phony poems aren't. When Dinosaur loses his pen, the two head off to find the pen tree (where did we think they would get another, Walmart?), and start to coauthor a number of poems in different formats, like limericks or speed haiku. They even try to write the grossest poem they can, which they label "poo-etry". Eventually, the Dinosaur decides to find another lunch, and writes poems with Frog.
Strengths: As the foreword notes, this isn't a book of poems, it is a book about writing poetry. Dinosaur and Frog get into all sorts of goofy situations, write some poems, and even tell us some information about dinosaurs. Angleberger's exuberant art (think The Two-Headed Chicken) is the real draw here, with fun and silly looks at dinosaurs.
Weaknesses: I'm struggling a bit with the audience for this one; it's a little young for readers of the 2010 Origami Yoda series (which really is more of a middle school book), but I'm not sure how many elementary school readers want to write poetry these days. Perhaps teachers who are introducing poetry units to both grade levels could use this as a starting point for student writing.
What I really think: This is somewhat akin to Pilkey's Cat Kid Comics books in that they have some life lessons delivered in a funny way. While this isn't a manual of poetic style in the way that something like Steele's All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing or Tipane's Writing Poetry for Dummies is, it's an amusing introduction to writing poetry for young readers.

Writing Poetry for Dummies is actually a really helpful book, and if you write poetry and haven't read Steele's book, you should pick it up and geek out on rhyme schemes and scansion.