What are a clothes hanger's thoughts on hanging out? In what way is a xylophone a phone? Following the many corners of a maze poem, we experience what it would be like to be a lab mouse. Most of all they take imaginative thinking. The poems themselves variously involve reading aloud, turning the page upside-down, reading bottom to top, and, in one case, reading in a mirror. The is in the word icicles turn upside down, and one begins to melt.

One l from the title 'balloon' floats free and becomes the string of an escaping balloon. The titles (which would make wonderful posters) make their wry points with an immediate impression. Each of the twenty-one offerings consists of a one-word title and a more extended poem. Graphic design meets riddle meets visual wordplay in this collection of sturdy and joyful perspectives on the ordinary stuff of the world. A selection about the Big Dipper includes a metaphor that describes the constellation as 'a vessel of stars, my brim overflowing with night.' Another offering depicts a thunderstorm as 'a cloud tantrum.' A few layouts may test some readers, such as one about a home run in which one whole line is printed backward, but most students will enjoy the challenge. While short, the poems are by turns amusing and thoughtful and make excellent use of figurative language devices. The result is a fun and clever collection that is sure to inspire young poets.

Even the table of contents is constructed to resemble a table. Raczka goes even further, playfully arranging the letters in the one-word titles of his poems as well. In each of his 21 concrete poems, he groups the words in a shape that complements or emphasizes the meaning or central concept. Gr 3–6-At the start of this collection, Raczka notes that he likes to think of poems as 'word paintings,' and he demonstrates this philosophy to marvelous effect.

Wet Cement by Bob Raczka