Jack Prelutsky is one of the kings of children’s poetry, and he has teamed up with Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka to create what is no doubt a winning book: Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More. Prelutsky, widely known for his enormously accessible and humorous poetry, won the inaugural Children’s Poet Laureate award, a title bestowed last fall by the Poetry Foundation. This new volume includes short, unnamed poems about sports, from baseball and soccer to Frisbee and karate. Winning, losing, scoring, missing it’s all here. Everyone will giggle at verses like I had to slide into the plate, / It was my only chance. / Though if I hadn’t slid, then I / Would not have lost my pants. Raschka’s lighthearted watercolor and ink illustrations add to the enjoyment, showing a wide-eyed player who has just lost his (or her) pants, and another player who has just been bonked on the head with a softball which isn’t soft! the poem concludes.
Valiant Women is a vital and engrossing attempt to correct the record and rightfully celebrate the achievements of female veterans of World War II.
