Douglas Florian

Douglas Florian has written and illustrated more than 50 books for children. These include Beast Feast, winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, Insectlopedia, a national bestseller, Dinothesaurus, which was a Bank Street College “Best Book of the Year,” Poetrees, which School Library Journal called “an exquisite collection,” and Mammalabilia, winner of the Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry. A retrospective of his poetry and children’s book art was held at Poet's House in Manhattan.

Reviews

Windsongs: Poems About Weather

“In 20 expertly crafted poems, Florian illuminates the origins, types, and effects of weather. Beginning with scene-setters about weather and our atmosphere and ending with a sober look at climate change, the veteran poet-illustrator riffs, often gleefully, on elements from rain and hail to frost and drought. He frequently uses personification, alliteration, and repetition, encapsulating solid information in economical rhymes and deft wordplay. “Cloud” narrates its own delight in “wrecking” the reader’s fun: “I rain cascades / on your parades. /…To nip your nap / I thunderclap.” Maintaining that “fog is just / a cloud that’s lost,” Florian describes how “it drifted down, / close to the ground, / then napped beside a hill. / And gave the day / ten shades of gray, / each un-fog-gettable.” Poems often take concrete forms, spiraling in “Hurricane” and assuming the shape of a funnel for “Tornado.” The text appears on pages of saturated color, opposite playful illustrations executed in gouache, colored pencil, and rubber stamps on primed paper bags. Humans vary in skin tone and cavort (and contort) in service of Florian’s visual jokes. For “Hurricane,” an umbrella-wielding person’s yellow slicker spirals round and round, echoing that poem’s shape. A “never ever wrong” meteorologist stands before a weather map, staring in shock at the barrage of hailstones despoiling a sunny forecast. In an image accompanying the last poem, three people—wearing caps that warn against damaging greenhouse pollutants—hold up our sea-blue planet. Appealing information in a delightfully sunny package.”—Kirkus, Starred Review

“This nonfiction picture book blends the beauty of weather with the ­elegance of poetry through its unique and memorable style. Each spread features a different element of weather, including types of storms, instruments used to measure weather, and more. The verses all vary in style, incorporating some rhymes and visual stylings to connect the words with their topics of focus. Many poem selections resemble a weather type, such as a spiral for a hurricane and lightning emerging from a cloud. These artistic choices serve the dual purpose of introducing children to the varied ways in which poetry can be created, as well as providing readers with a memorable way of recognizing weather features. Facing each poem is an accompanying illustration that embraces childlike art, using visible pencil lines, asymmetrical imagery, and muted hues. Together, the text and pictures make the concept of weather accessible to a very young audience, especially when used to teach about weather for the first time. A glossary provides more detailed information about each featured weather type, enhancing the learning that can happen thanks to this book. VERDICT A unique and accessible title that helps young children connect to weather in a foundational and introductory manner.”—School Library Journal

Brush! Brush! Brush!

“Flash those pearly whites! Renowned poet Florian’s jaunty rhymes suggest that a hygiene ritual many children consider bothersome can be “fun! fun! fun!” Each spread features lively scenes showing kids demonstrating tooth- and mouth-cleansing techniques as well as two couplets in which the second exclamatory lines—containing a word repeated three times—rhyme with each other (“Toothpaste on the / brush! brush! brush!” “Take your time. / Don’t rush! rush! rush!” Parents and caregivers seeking an enjoyable, stimulating way to motivate youngsters to perform this important daily task may wish to recite the rollicking verses to provide a pleasant, rhythmic, chanting “background” whenever their kids wield their toothbrushes. The colorful, energetic illustrations depict happy, wide-eyed, racially diverse small children—some with missing teeth—taking care of their oral-hygiene business with gusto.  We’ll say it: a toothsome experience.”—Kirkus

“From the writer and illustrator of Play! Play! Play! (2018) and Bath! Bath! Bath! (2018), this colorful board book introduces the process of toothbrushing to young children. A cheerful, multicultural cast of kids take turns stepping up to deliver rhyming lines, such as “Brushing up and down! down! down! / Move the toothbrush round! round! round!” The repeated words set up a rhythmic pattern that encourages listeners to chime in with the chant, while the vibrant illustrations make the toothbrushing process look like fun. An encouraging book for children who are learning to clean their teeth.”—Booklist

Zoobilations!

“The latest offering from the grizzled wizard of wordplay presents 20 creatures from llamas, who “llove to graze on grass” and “have a llot of mass,” to giraffes that “eat the leaves/of tallest trees/most all giraffe-ternoon.” In verses running from just a couplet to a dozen or so lines each, Florian intersperses snippets of natural history with imaginative flights of fancy, putting centipedes and millipedes on bicycles to admire how fast they “centi-pedal,” or setting an unhappy circus elephant to dreams of flying in “ele-fantasies.” The poems are paired with likewise freewheeling portraits that treat viewers to sights ranging from a naked mole rat trying on a pair of shorts to a hammerhead shark pounding nails into a board, all rendered in scribbly preschooler style (though he does stay inside the lines, barely) with crayons or pastels on paper bags. It’s beastly fun, as usual, whether read silently or bellowed aloud.”—Booklist

“Florian returns to the zoo (zoo’s who, rev. 5/05) with twenty new pithy and jubilant poems about animals. Some of the poems are peppered with interesting facts, such as “The African Elephant”: “Each tusk can weigh / more than a man / (and measure just as long).” Occasionally a standalone couplet creates the space for sheer silliness: “I wanted to write a poem on an antelope. / But I cantaloupe.” Each of the poems incorporates clever wordplay to create an ultimate punch line, while the characteristically rough-textured art, with its thick crayon-like lines and deep colors, plays up the joke. The illustration accompanying “The Midwife Toad” shows a male toad loaded down with eggs on his back and with a “World’s Best Dad” hat on his head. “The Hammerhead Shark” declares, “I hunt for squid or bass or ray– / my hammer head nails down my prey,” and the illustration depicts a shark using its head to hammer some nails into a board. The wide range of creatures—from centipedes and seagulls to mandrills and flying foxes—offers young readers familiar specimens as well as some less well-known ones. Florian’s experimentation with word meanings and usage models how to have fun with writing, imagery, and verse.” —The Horn Book

Play! Play! Play!

"There's no wrong way to “play! play! play!” and everyone is invited." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits

"Perfect for a lap-sit, this title works well for preschool and primary-aged storytimes and, with every rabbit different from the next, provides plenty of details for kids to pore over." —School Library Journal, Starred Review

 "The energy of Florian’s verse flows from quiet to spirited and back again, in a singsong rhythm well-suited to bedtime storytelling." —Publishers Weekly 

 "Small and friendly." —Kirkus