Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me

by | Jan 6, 2019 | Book Review, Illustrated book, Poetry

Book Details

Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me
Eloise Greenfield, illus. Ehsan Abdollahi, London: Tiny Owl, hb. 978 1 9103 2833 0, 2018, £9.99, 34pp.

Poetry, Illustrated book, 8-10 years

Pleasant poems about young Jace and his dog Thinker, which thread their way between fantasy and reality.
These are pleasant poems about young Jace and his dog Thinker, who is himself a poet. The poems thread their way between fantasy and reality much as a child’s imagination might. This is the dog Thinker as Jace imagines him, thinking and feeling in the way Jace thinks he might, sometimes expressing Jace’s feelings and acting out his dreams. Is it Jace or Thinker who wants to get up in front of the class and recite a funny poem?

The poems are pitched at just the right reading and emotional level for a seven-year-old like Jace and move from free verse to rap. Ehsan Abdollahi’s illustrations express perfectly the relationship between boy and puppy and the warm and lively atmosphere of their African-American family.

Review by Clive Barnes