Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish (Bilingual English/Spanish)

Gr 6 Up--Juan Felipe Herrera has written a series of poems in both English and Spanish celebrating his childhood. The poet sizes up life, observes what's around him, revels in its tastes and smells--"I am a monkey cartoon or a chile tamal, crazy/with paisley patches, infinite flavors cinnamon &/banana ice cream, it's 3 in the afternoon...." Barbour's black-and-white drawings accompany each poem, delicately underlining its images but allowing the strong sensuality of the words to seep into readers' minds. To read the collection is to come to know the narrator who carries "the sun in my pocket, playing the gold violin/a seven-stringed branch of water & bronze...." Laughing Out Loud, I Fly joins a growing number of English/Spanish poetry collections for young people, such as Lori Carlson's Cool Salsa (Holt, 1994) and Naomi Shihab Nye's The Tree Is Older Than You Are (S & S, 1995). It offers selections from a poet's heart to savor again and again.--Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CT