Dennis Lee (1) (1939–)

Rating: 2.5 rounded down

Dennis Lee is a much lauded Canadian children’s poet. This is the only one of his books I’ve actually completed. The first poem, “Melvis and Elvis” introduces us to a monster and an elf, each searching the library stacks for a book. The monster wants to read about elves, and the elf, monsters. They fortuitously bang into each other and together find and read a book which features both a monster and an elf, as well as lots of nonsense.

There are 33 poems in show more total, all rhyming, the majority fairly short. A few of the poems are quite clever and a couple address real concerns of children—exasperation at a misbehaving puppy and the need to sleep with a stuffed toy. There’s also a delightful poem, “Apologies to My Most Noble and Excellent Friend,” in which the speaker offers not a single “sorry” but only a series of excuses for his actions: he squeezed his friend’s nose only because he thought it was a garden hose and ripped the other boy’s shirt off when what he really meant was to get the dirt off.

Many of Lee’s poems are simply silly. Not having test driven them in a read-aloud with young children, I’m not entirely sure how they’d go over. Kids do love the nonsensical. However, a few of these pieces aren’t silly so much as they are vague and abstract, especially given the intended audience. Consider the first stanza of “The New Friend”: “If you could like me,/ Like me now,/ As deep as the dreams / In your heart allow.” As deep as the dreams in your heart allow? What does this even mean? What would it mean to a five to eight-year-old? Not much, I’d say. (This is a problem I have with Lee: so much of the word choice seems merely convenient to preserve the rhyming scheme.) Another poem refers to an enchanted place under a tree by the Severn River—a place which made the speaker’s heart (become) “an ache in space.” Again, I ask: what does this actually mean?

I am not a Dennis Lee fan. I also have no fondness for the work of illustrator Jeremy Tankard. His messy, ugly art and preference for bilious green is not to my taste at all.

Yes, there are a few decent poems here, and I can imagine children appreciating the rhythmic nonsense. Overall, though, this isn’t a book that I could really warm to and it’s certainly not one I can recommend. show less

I am a huge fan of Lee's later ecological poems, and in this much earlier volume, you can see hints and traces of his later voice--the improvisational coinages, the music--emerging. Of course they stand on their own too. The kinds of poems where you run into a turn of phrase like an iron fence, and slow down, and read it over a few times, and your brain drops into a lower key and a slower register and takes its time with the rest of them.

It's actually quite difficult coming up with the appropriate age level tag for books like these. The word and structure of the story were written like they were for a child, but the story is actually quite violent. The story is about a girl named Lizzy who has a pet lion. From the start, she tells you that the lion is not friendly. One night, a robber sneaks in Lizzy's room, but her lion stops him. The lion ends up chewing up the robber. At the end, Lizzy and the lion throw away the robber's show more body parts. This book was challenged, and I could definitely see why. However, the story and pictures were very captivating. show less

A Canadian classic, with poems for children to skip to, bounce to, invent new verses to... Some longer stories of every-day childhood with a humourous twist. Many are easy to learn off by heart, and many are parodies of traditional Mother Goose rhymes or A.A. Milne poems, updated and made relevant for modern city kids. Some Canadian place names and other references. A favourite from my childhood, now much loved by our own children.