Looking for Jaguar: And Other Rain Forest Poems - Hardcover

*Starred Review* Gr. 2-4. A tour of the most biologically diverse regions of the world, conducted with correspondingly diverse poetry, awaits young readers in a collection as useful in the science classroom as in language arts units. In many of her 19 sharply honed poems, Katz writes in formal verse that elegantly reflects the overarching design that governs the seemingly chaotic rhythms of the rain forest. In all, she speaks directly to her audience through child-friendly metaphor (an okapi is "a jigsaw puzzle put together wrong"), affable humor (the carrion-scented rafflesia "isn't a plant that tries hard to please ya"), and plenty of mind-boggling facts (a pair of poems, cleverly presented on facing pages, describe extreme species of antelope and frog, both "the size of a pet cat"). Though the soft edges of Christiansen's pastels blur the exotic details that many children will yearn for, his shadowy jade tones and misty textures nicely approximate the atmosphere of a dim, humid rain forest. An appendix defining the poetic forms used, which include pantoum and haiku-like lunes, would have made this book even more useful, but the existing factual endnotes sturdily support the book's informational purpose. Jennifer Mattson
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