| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Children's & Young Adults Book Reviews From our Archives |
October 2004 |
So Cool by Dennis Lee, illustrated by Maryann Kovalski, Key Porter Books, hardcover, 72 pages, $19.95
By Alidė Kohlhaas
Do you remember what it was like to be a teenager? Of course you do even if your pre-teens and teenage children, nieces, nephews and various other acquaintances of that curious, contradictory age group believe wholeheartedly that you do not. How often have these youngsters grumbled at you, "but you don't understand," or "you couldn't possibly know," when you know exactly what they are experiencing? Now Dennis Lee, the inveterate storyteller and versifier, whose whole life seems to be dedicated to captivating children, has taken on, yes, you guessed it, teenagers. So Cool is the name of his latest book of poetry that captures perceptively the mood swings of teenage existence.
This is not a big book. No young readers can complain that Lee has created for them a long read that is difficult to decipher. So Cool is, very much, an easy read. Most of all, it is, truly "cool", although the word these days is probably not the latest in the teenage pantheon of ever-changing expressions that describe a state of being utterly with it. It hails from the jazz age, that antediluvian world, which strangely enough, a lot of young people, teenagers included, are now rediscovering.
Maryann Kovalski is Lee's co-conspirator in So Cool. Her drawings render the poet's words into a visual world with which teenagers must surely be able to identify. They are as quirky, rhythmic, joyful, and as depressing as the state of mind of young people sometimes is wont to be that Lee reveals with simple words and phrases, and Kovalski with a brush.
Take the title poem, which asks questions that most of us have asked ourselves . . .
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