Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs

by J Patrick Lewis (Author) Jeffrey Stewart Timmins (Illustrator)

Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
Irony and wit permeate this darkly humorous collection in which each poem is the epitaph of a different animal. The pieces are grouped by animal type, and range in length from one to 18 lines. Full color.
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School Library Journal

Gr 4-6--Lewis and Yolen demonstrate their wit and punning skills in this collection of 31 short selections describing the demise of a variety of creatures, both domestic and wild. Each author supplied 15 poems; one is a collaboration. Cartoon-style animals on the volume's cover and the picture-book format belie the sophistication of the poetry and illustrations within. Timmins has used black, gray, and brownish inks with some touches of color (including plenty of blood red) to create the bizarre, sometimes grim or grotesque computerized scenes that are an integral part of each poem-a newt squashed flat on the road; a goose fried on an electric wire; a sick old horse drinking from a stream into which a sheep is defecating; a rooster's body protruding from a car's grille. Youngsters who can get past the book's theme and are able to understand and appreciate the "deadly" dark humor based on clever wordplay are in for a treat, for both poets are in great form. Some prime examples are: Yolen's "Firefly's Final Flight" (a poem in two words)-"Lights out." and Lewis's "Ciao Cow"-"This grave is peaceful, /the tombstone shaded, /but I'm not here-/I've been cream-ated." Poeticized animals also include barracuda, swordfish, rattlesnake, woodpecker, dog, skunk, bear, and others. Definitely a tad macabre, but original and inventive, just the same.--Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Lewis and Yolen team up for a darkly funny homage to the dearly departed--those with feathers, hooves, tails, and fins. An axe leans against a blood-stained stump while three feathers drift nearby ("Sorry, no leftovers," reads a turkey's epitaph), and a barracuda is destroyed by a superior predator: "My teeth were vicious;/ my bite was hateful./ A great white met me--/ the date was fateful." Timmins's bleak, blood-spattered palette and zombielike animals create an appropriately dismal environment for the funereal text; lovers of the macabre will cackle over these unfortunate demises. Ages 7-10. (July)

Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
J Patrick Lewis
U.S. children's poet laureate for 2011-2013, J. PATRICK LEWIS is the author of more than fifty books of poetry for children, which find their shape in both free and formal verse and engage a wide range of subjects from history to mathematics, Russian folklore to the animal kingdom. His books for children include New York Times Best Illustrated Book The Last Resort (2002, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti and translated into more than a dozen languages) and The Shoe Tree of Chagrin (2001, illustrated by Chris Sheban), which won the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators' Golden Kite Award. His children's poetry has been widely anthologized, and his contributions to children's literature have been recognized with the 2011 Poetry Award from the National Council of Teachers of English and the Ohioana Awards' 2004 Alice Louise Wood Memorial Prize. He recently authored the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781580892605
Lexile Measure
730
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Charlesbridge Publishing
Publication date
July 01, 2012
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF042010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Poetry | Humorous
JNF003000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Animals | General
Library of Congress categories
Animals
Cybils
Finalist 2012 - 2012
Beehive Awards
Nominee 2014 - 2014
Kentucky Bluegrass Award
Nominee 2014 - 2014

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