The Man in the Moon-Fixer's Mask by JonArno Lawson

JonArno Lawson's jaunty poems collected in The Man in the Moon-Fixer's Mask beg to be shared out loud. I'm particularly fond of the shortest ones:

"We saw a hippopotamus; / I don't know what it thought of us. / I doubt it thought a lot of us; / a glimpse was all it got of us." (Hippopotamus)

"Aghast that a guest was a ghost, / a fellow guest goaded the host -- / The gist of it was / he was angry because / a gust from a ghost chilled his toast." (Aghast)

Lawson's love of language is evident in poem titles like: A Princess Apprentice; The Rhinostrich; and The Frog Knows His Prognosis. Simple illustrations by Sherwin Tjia accentuate the slightly oddball, playful mood.

Readalikes: anything by Dennis Lee.