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Smaller words hide out in bigger words. It's a fact you may not have considered, or at least would never have fully explored without the kind help of Richard Wilbur, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former Poet Laureate of the United States. Once you've found the gnat in indignation, however, there's no turning back. You will simply have to dissect word after word to see how the sum i... More

Smaller words hide out in bigger words. It's a fact you may not have considered, or at least would never have fully explored without the kind help of Richard Wilbur, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former Poet Laureate of the United States. Once you've found the gnat in indignation, however, there's no turning back. You will simply have to dissect word after word to see how the sum is affected by its parts. Is it an accident that the modest, nonflying emu fits inside the word demure? Or that mustn't contains the letters TNT? Wilbur thinks not.

When there's a pig inside your spigot, you
Must not cry out, "There's nothing I can do!"
Be sensible, and take the obvious course,
Which is to turn the spigot on full force.
Sufficient water pressure will, I think,
Oblige the pig to flow into the sink.


J. Otto Seibold, cocreator of the Mr. Lunch books and Olive, the Other Reindeer, has just as good a time as Wilbur in this playful, poetic picture book. His depiction of a moth devouring a cream-of-tomato-soup-colored sweater (making "Anga Anga" sounds as it practically flosses with the yarn) is hilarious, as is the joey shouting "ouch" from inside the mother kangaroo's pouch. Punsters, poetry teachers, and people in general will adore this quirky celebration of the joy of words. And for the record, beware the bug in bugle and the elf in your belfry. (Ages 6 and older) --Karin Snelson

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