Clayton's companion to The Awesome Book! is an exclamatory love poem ("I love you so much/ I would scream it from mountains/ And dance like a fool in/ the coldest town fountains"). Quirky drawings in rainbow shades have a psychedelic edge (a purple bear with hearts blasting from its chest could have stumbled off of a Grateful Dead album cover), while the verse might have been sampled from indie rock: "Sometimes it's a whisper/ when you feel you could shout/ or just being around/ when the others have gone/ or about/ letting go/ when you want to hold on." Peculiar creatures frolic throughout--an elephant parachutes from a plane, a robot embraces a dinosaur--creating a fresh and lightly irreverent backdrop for Clayton's earnest verse. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2012 PWxyz LLCPreS-Gr 2--In this follow-up to An Awesome Book (HarperCollins, 2012), Clayton's feel-good message continues. Rhyming verse explores matters of the heart, from effusive proclamations like "I love you so much/I would scream it from mountains/and dance like a fool in/the coldest town fountains," to reflective moments of "Letting go/when you want/to hold on." Some of the sentiments lean toward the trite ("You're you/and I'm me/and we're as together/as together can be"). Exuberant pen-and-ink illustrations feature robots hugging dinosaurs and entwined scarves that look like snakes. With its cacophony of hand-lettered, uppercase text and busy backgrounds covered in flowers and rainbows, this book is indeed passionate, if not a bit overwhelming.--Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada
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