Carson Clare’s Trail Guide to Avoiding Death by Bruce McCandless III
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It has been a few years since I was in middle school, but I believe I still can appreciate good poetry and some well-done illustrations to accompany some of the poems. Poems that deal with subjects such as aliens, old folks, a body shamed Santa who loses his way on the way to developing washboard abs, and even a poem on tater tots and more all in this collection rendered with good humor and a bit of tongue-in-cheek. I don’t know of any other poetry collection that has a danger rating at the end of each poem and a list of survival tips. For the poem “Tater Tots” the Danger Rating read “None. We just like tater tots.” The longest and the most complex in terms of rhyme scheme and telling a story is “Body Shamers” about Santa deciding to mold a new man out of himself and how he loses something important along the way. In the poem “Weird Vegetables,” there is the survival suggestion of stuffing Brussels sprouts in your pants until the coast is clear. As somebody who likes broccoli and Brussels sprouts, I found that a poor use of a fine vegetable. Most, if not all, of these poems deserve to be read out loud. Just be careful. You may find it hard to survive if you read some of these around the wrong folks.
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