I rarely review poetry, and I don't think I've ever reviewed a book of poetry intended to be read by kids. But Paul Kaplan was my student in Fordham University's Masters program in Media back in 2002-2004, just a few years after I got there, and I knew he was brilliant and funny, so ...
It turns out The Thingy That's Stringy is not only very wise and hilarious, it can be equally enjoyed -- immensely, if you ask me -- by adults as well as children. (It also has funny drawings done the author.) Kaplan is a master of taking metaphors literally, and this collection explores someone who wants to borrow a nap someone else is taking, a fish that has an underbite because it lives under water, dogs that walk people, a really lost sole, a kitten that catches colds not mice, hens that sit on eggplants, someone who looks for a giraffe after being told that his calf is behind his shin, someone who wonders why we call it a funny bone when it hurts so much after we hit it, someone who balks when someone asks him to give a hand because he only has two, someone who wonders exactly where the skin of their teeth is, a frustrated hummingbird who yearns to actually sing, a lazy eye that won't do any work, a student who asks the teacher can I go to the bathroom and gets an answer "I don't know -- can you?", and, well, you get the picture.
My copy of The Thingy That's Stringy is now plastered with post-it notes, in case I want to get a poem that will make me chuckle or laugh my head off in a hurry. "A man's reach must exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for," the poet Robert Browning advised in the middle of the 19th century. A century later, Marshall McLuhan upped the ante by replacing the word "heaven" with "metaphor". And poet Paul Kaplan has now done it again with a deconstruction of metaphor that will keep your mind in stitches (ouch) :)
And to be clear, kids will laugh with this book of poetry, too. My wife sent a copy of the book to our two grandsons, then aged six and ten. The first loved it, and the second was laughing too. Whatever your age, I predict that you will be too.
