Children's Nonfiction Humorous
Wise Up! Wise Down!: A Poetic Conversation
- Publisher
- Candlewick Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2025
- Category
- Humorous, Curiosities & Wonders, Philosophy
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781536238990
- Publish Date
- Mar 2025
- List Price
- $24.99
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 8 to 12
- Grade: 3 to 7
Description
Funny, thought-provoking, and bursting with curiosity, Wise Up! Wise Down! is a lively conversation between two internationally known poets, illustrated by acclaimed artist Satoshi Kitamura.
How can laughter be more powerful than a sword? Why do days have names but not weeks? And do pigeons ever get a craving for cake? Two friends, esteemed poets John Agard and JonArno Lawson, take us on an inspiring, hilarious, and wondrous journey through poetry, asking questions and attempting answers as they discover that life really is forever and ever an adventure. Comprising more than seventy-five poems written in a call-and-response format, with each poem having a reply from the other poet, Wise Up! Wise Down! is sure to inspire all readers to find humor in every day.
About the authors
John Agard was born in Guyana in 1949. He has lived in Britain since 1977. He has worked as a features writer and librarian and is now a full-time writer and performer. In addition to his books for children, his publications include Limbo Dancer in Dark Glasses, Man to Pan, Mangoes and Bullets, Lovelines for a Goat-born Lady and The Devil's Pulpit.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario and raised nearby in Dundas, JonArno Lawson's most formative experiences as a child occurred in Florida which he visited for an extended stay at the age of eight. Happy to be missing almost an entire year of school, he filled his days at the beach digging holes and collecting shells and coconuts, travelling in glass-bottomed boats and touring nature parks that featured free-roaming monkeys and parrots. He wore a ship captain's hat at all times, and a green pouch in which he kept dozens of ticket stubs, a musket ball, brass souvenir coins that bore the faces of various American presidents, and other treasures which he hoards to this day. JonArno is a two-time winner of the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Children's Poetry, for Black Stars in a White Night Sky in 2007 and again in 2009 for A Voweller's Bestiary. In 2011 his poetry collection Think Again was short-listed for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award. JonArno lives in Toronto with his wife Amy Freedman and his children Sophie, Ashey and Joseph, all of whom assist the author with phrases, topics and sometimes even complete lines for use in his poems.
Excerpt: Wise Up! Wise Down!: A Poetic Conversation (by (author) John Agard & JonArno Lawson; illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura)
Hello, out there!
I’m John Agard.
I’m supposed to be a poet.
I’ll do my best to live up to it!
JA
And I’m the other JA—
JonArno Lawson.
Be on your guard with Agard,
and with Lawson, use caution.
JL
Believe Me, Coyotes
Two sharp-fanged fawn-colored
messengers stand ready
at the bars of my back gate.
What news have you brought me, wily duo?
Am I seeing double,
or is fate
just doubling my trouble?
Either way, I only have room in my mind
for one of you.
But which one?
The one who draws me in or the one who
scares me off?
On the page it’s different.
Here on the page
I can give you equal attention.
You can both appear as you appeared in the
dry grass
beside my gate. And I can even tell you
apart now:
one with a hurt paw, the other with curious fur
carrying news, which, once you saw me,
became unimportant.
Anyway, you had only one unspeakable word
between you
and even if you had been able to say it
I couldn’t have written it.
Besides, if I say
who would believe it (except maybe my
friend John)?
That I saw two coyotes
whose shadow turned two into one.
JL
UNBELIEVABLE
My friend JonArno,
who (as it so happens)
lives in Toronto,
discovered out of the blue,
not one but two, yes, two
coyotes in his back garden.
Lucky devil! In my English
garden, what do I discover?
No less than a posse of bugs,
slugs, wood lice, snails,
the odd glowworm,
in short, creepy-crawlies!
All leaving their gooey trail!
But since coyotes are known to be
tricksters who don’t mind a lie,
just you wait, next time I send
that JonArno an email,
I’ll say, guess what, mate?
Beside my bed of roses,
right out of the summer blue,
I spotted not one, but two
hippos. Yes, two. And the way
they struck up their poses
for a selfie was unbelievable!
Don’t you believe me?
JA
Questions
If I perch
in a cage
am I a bird?
If I lie
on a page
am I a word?
If I hang
from a branch
am I a fruit?
If I hide
in the earth
am I a root?
O answers
are folly
when questions bring bliss.
Without questions, can I exist?
JA
Should I Be Me?
Who’s who?
I’m me.
You’re you.
We’re we.
He’s he.
She’s she.
So tell us
what to do—
Should he be she?
Should she be he?
Should I be me
or you?
JL
