NPM 2024 Day 25: LEAVE A MESSAGE IN THE SAND

Today’s poetry picture book was originally published in Amsterdam and it’s all about hooved creatures.

LEAVE A MESSAGE IN THE SAND is a poetry picture book imported from Amsterdam.  Inside of its covers are a myriad of mask poems told from the point of view of just about every hooved animal on earth that I had certainly never given a second’s thought.  It’s a wacky and goofy collection, which always makes me nervous.  Humor doesn’t always translate across continents, countries, or cultures.  BUT for the most part, the humor works here.  I learned about a couple of creatures I’d never heard of before and had to instantly look them up on Google to verify they were real.  Guess what?  THEY WERE!  Every single critter in this book is real.  There’s even one that’s sadly extinct now.

Plus, Annemarie van Haeringen is an award winning illustrator in the Netherlands and it’s not hard to see why.  The illustrations are created with ink and watercolor to perfect effect here, each page a different approach or technique.  Overall, this is a very different collection of poetry that might’ve been overlooked as it was originally published in the US in 2020.

Please note: I was also given a copy of the book to review by the publisher (Eerdmans Books), but as always, the opinions are all mine.

And if you’re looking for more poetry fun this month, be sure to check out the Kidlitosphere Event Roundup!  Thank you for stopping by!