Beastly Verse - (Hardcover)

About the Book

A surprising, humorous, and graphically exquisite presentation of sixteen classic animal poems that spark with fun and cleverness.

Book Synopsis

A surprising, humorous, and graphically exquisite presentation of sixteen classic animal poems that spark with fun and cleverness.
Poetry and children belong together, and for a long time, the music and playfulness of verse wove itself through children's days and lives. Beastly Verse aims to help return the wonder of poetry to children's lives through sixteen exquisitely illustrated poems, four of which have the surprise and pleasure of being foldouts. Consisting of playful as well as powerfully memorable poems, Beastly Verse transports the reader into a richly worded world of tigers, hummingbirds, owls, elephants, pelicans, yaks, snails, and even telephones! A playful romp through verse, rhyme, and gorgeous images, this book carries children into the poetic realm in a way that is not only fun and inviting, but inspiring as well! Representing poems from Anonymous, as well as some lesser well-known poets, this volume also includes poems from Lewis Carroll, William Blake, Robert Desnos, Hilaire Belloc, William Cowper, Christina Rossetti, and D.H. Lawrence. Both short and long, these poems can be read and reread, committed to memory and enjoyed all life long.

JooHee Yoon is an illustrator and printmaker committed to the art of bookmaking. Her art work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker Magazine, Le Monde, and many other international publications.

Review Quotes

Selected for the New York Public Library's 2015 List of 100 Best Books for Reading & Sharing
A Booklist Editor's Choice for 2015
Selected for the Society of Illustrators 2015 Original Art Show
A Book Links Magazine Choice for the Top Classroom Picks for 2015

Featured in Green Source DFW December 2018 gift guide
"Gleefully distinctive stylings, fluorescent colors, and beautiful bookmaking should make an eager new audience for these old poems." --Kirkus Reviews

★ "The main attraction, of course, is Yoon's stunning, exuberant artwork, and poetry classes would be well served by this superior piece of bookmaking." --STARRED REVIEW, Booklist

"Here is William Blake's 'The Tiger' burning bright amid inky-green foliage on a page that folds out to show his fearful symmetry. Here too is Lewis Carroll's 'The Crocodile' set against a subtly hilarious illustration that shows not only the little fish swimming into the monster's 'gently smiling jaws' but the skeletons of those who have already made the trip. Though the book concludes with Walter de la Mare's drowsy 'Dream Song' this gorgeous compendium is so stimulating that it's probably best read in the bright light of day." --Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Wall Street Journal

"Half a century after Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls, legendary artist Tomi Ungerer's illustrated compendium of famous authors' verses about brothers and sisters, another singular illustrator of our own era applies the concept to a different domain of the human experience--the inclination toward thinking with animals in making sense of our own lives.
In Beastly Verse, her spectacular picture-book debut...illustrator and printmaker JooHee Yoon brings to vibrant life sixteen beloved poems about nonhuman creatures, real and imagined -- masterworks as varied in sentiment and sensibility as Lewis Carroll's playful 'The Crocodile, ' D.H. Lawrence's revolutionarily evolutionary homage to the hummingbird, Christina Rossetti's celebration of butterfly metamorphosis, and William Blake's bright-burning ode to the tiger."-- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

★ "In her U.S children's book debut, Yoon creates a monstrous menagerie to accompany 16 poems about animals real and imagined. Her bold, vintage-looking prints use only three colors--a lurid yellow, bright pink, and creamy teal--that overlap to create secondary shades. The sharply contrasting colors make the grinning, grimacing, snarling creatures seem to pulse with electricity, and foldout pages enhance the sense of movement. [...] A fierce and fresh bestiary."-- STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly

"JooHee Yoon's 'Beastly Verse' is very much about its pictures. Three-color illustrations of critters fill up page after intense page, cheerily aggressive, goofy, beastly-friendly. Yoon's poem selection is economical, intelligent, even hip."-- Daisy Fried, The New York Times

"Beastly Verse is a mischievously beautiful work of art. This book of 16 poems is simultaneously gorgeous, thrilling, and very funny... This book should certainly be hailed and celebrated for its incredible design and artwork--as far as books of poetry go there's nothing I've found to rival this book. The use of colors and layout are nothing but perfect. The illustrations match, reflect, and elevate poems you didn't really think could be added to--and yet here it is." --The Picture Book Review

"This is a collection of animal poems... with gatefold surprises and Yoon's distinctive and stylized art, so vivid in its palette that the spreads pop off the page."-- Julie Danielson, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

"The book is big and square and sturdy, with thick off-white paper contrasting with the embellishment Yoon pours onto each animal and scene via overlays of three primary colors. But as eye-catching as the pictures are, the artist knows to pay attention to the poems and reflect their moods." --The Horn Book

"The poems are cleverly selected for child appeal and yet many of them aren't specifically children's poetry, allowing children to stretch a bit and learn more about poetry and their own reactions to it... The illustrations here are the star and what will have children and adults alike picking up the volume."
-- Tasha Saecker, Waking Brain Cells

"The thought and craftsmanship involved is a visual wonder, adding depth and a mysterious sense of magic to her work. An enchanting read, and reread, for children and adults alike."--Liam, @wordsandillustrations

About the Author

JooHee Yoon is an illustrator and printmaker committed to the art of bookmaking. She enjoys combining illustration with design whenever possible and using both traditional and industrial printing techniques for her projects. Rather than a single approach, she tries to match the tone of each project. She strives to create picture books that work on many levels and can be enjoyed by people of all ages.