The Wizard

Written by Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by Brandon Dorman

Published by Greenwillow Books

About two weeks back I was looking through the children's section of the library, minding my business, when this lovely book caught my eye. It was on the return cart waiting to be put back. I knew Jack Prelutsky as a children's poet, so I was perplexed to see his name on the cover of a picture book. Well, I opened up the book and was pleasantly surprised.

Here is one of Jack Prelutsky's poems brought to life by the help of an amazing illustrator, Brandon Dorman. If any kid complains that poetry is boring, he sure hasn't seen this book. Ever since I brought it home from the library, my two sons want to read it almost every night before bed. The rhyming text and vibrant illustrations help to really set your imagination wild with magical thoughts about wizardry and magic.

Prelutsky has a knack for setting the mood with his descriptive language, and Dorman runs with the creativity by creating two-page spreads of the wizard's tower, filled with burning candles, potions, black cats, crows, spider webs, ancient books, a portrait of Medusa, etc. The list could go on and on. One of the most wonderful things about this book is that you can go back and look at each sprawling illustration and find many things that you did not see before.

The thing I love most about this book is that it is poetry, literally, come to life by these wonderful illustrations. It is not to give Dorman full credit for the book, but the poem could not live on as it does in this book if it were just words on a blank page, like poetry sometimes is. It think this book would be a wonderful way to introduce students to poetry, especially young ones. It will get their feet wet with the text by slowly weaning them away from illustrations. Young audiences are so used to picture books, that I'm sure the move to pictureless poetry can be a little boring for them. So, as a teacher, I would use definitely use this book as a prelude to a poetry unit. It would also be a great activity to have students draw their own illustrations of a poem that doesn't have illustrations. This book could really get kids motivated for doing that.