Review of It's Raining Laughter
by Caleb Powell (with a little help from Mommy and Daddy)


It's Raining Laughter, by Nikki Grimes (Photographs by Myles C. Pinkney) is about kids telling poems about what they are and what they do and what they want to do. One boy says: "I'm a hang-glider, a wild-wave rider, a steep-cliff climber. Someday there'll be poems about me blazing new trails just because I could." (I changed the ending to "...just because I could BE ME.")

The beginning of another poem sounds something like a song ("Wade In The Water") I know. That poem is called, "Where'd You Get Them names?"

One more poem in this book is called "Listen." It goes like this:

"Listen:
Let me tell you
where things stand.
Each day is like fruit
resting ripe in my hand.
Will I sample it's sweetness?
Will I toss it away?
Will I let you steal it?
I got one thing to say:
Don't try it.
Don't try it."

My favorite poem in this book is called "I AM" because my mom tickled me when I said the word "giggle" in that poem.



Caleb is an energetic 8 year old. He says, "I like to play football, basketball and soccer, and I like doing multiplication." Caleb enjoys real-life math by studying his team's statistics after each game. He was recently awarded the "MVP and Most Unselfish" medal for his team's Fall 2003 soccer season.



March 1, 2004