Book Speak! is a collection of poems all about books. There are a variety of different styles of poems. The poems in this book explore all the aspects of books. There are poems about the characters, the parts of a story, the people that help to make a book, parts of a book, and the list goes on. These poems provide interesting viewpoints on books in the form of poetry. This book would be best for middle to upper elementary students.

I think my favorite part of this book is the pictures. The illustrator did a phenomenal job. My next favorite thing about the book is the like the title says it teaches you about books. There's poems about parts of books like the index and it tells you about what it does but in a fun way. I think this book would be good for younger audiences because the language is clear and I think it'll be useful in introducing them to reading and the different parts of the book. It'll be a more entertaining, and fun way. ( )

Fun poems about books and all their parts – like index, characters, paper, beginning, middle, and end – written in first person. The poems are humorous, witty, and light. The collaged illustrations were not my favorite. They are done in a collaged style, and while fun, felt chaotic. ( )

I really enjoyed this book of poems. This collection of poems about books uses imaginative language to help children see the value in both literature as a content area and poetry specifically. One poem talked about damaged books with stains, torn pages, and snapped spines with loving language. In the last line, the poet mentions a brand new dusty book in perfect condition and how sad it must be.It identifies a good book as worn and torn.I would recommend this book of poems to resistant readers or avid readers.

BookSpeak! Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas is a collection of twenty-one poems that celebrate books in all shapes and forms: their physical properties, the stories within them, and the readers who love them. Each poem is complemented by Josée Bisaillon's clever artwork, which is a mixture of drawings, collage, and digital montage.

Laura Purdie Salas's poems demonstrate a confident, playful relationship with language that makes her poems shine. The poems have a broad range, from tone, subject, and rhyme scheme, but all show off the clever wordplay of Salas. In one, an anthropomorphized book is alarmed by his sleepy reader resting her head on his pages; in another, the words on a page are ravens set free, and Salas is not immune to slipping in a clever pun or two in the lines. Some of the poems are crisp, celebrating the adventure of discovering new worlds between the pages of a book, while others are fresh and fun, full of rich ideas and a knowing wink to readers, and still others are muffled, quiet pieces that are bound to make an impression.

Though all the poems are about books, Salas broadly interprets this to mean more than a love of reading, but also the physical properties of books from their covers to their ink, the stories and characters inside them, and the readers, of course, who love them.

Josée Bisaillon's artwork more than aptly showcases what good illustrations can do: beyond working together with the text, they elevate it and add a richness to the already gorgeous poems. Bisailllon experiments, to great effect, with each new poem. The first poem, appropriately, is about the adventure that awaits readers when they open a new book; Bisaillon's collage work has a radio underwater, flowers growing on a cloud, and a tiny dragon breathing flames while cars roll down hills in the background. The effect is dreamlike and perfect for the poem's subject matter. Every page is unique and beautiful, as much a celebration of books as the poems themselves.

One particular standout in this collection is "skywriting", which experiments with typeface and font, and is illustrated beautifully by Bisaillon, who shows a deep understanding of the material. Her illustration echoes the almost haunting mood of the poem, with ravens made out of inkblots, some of which fly off the page, and others who sit curiously on the lines of a page.

BookSpeak! has good-natured humor, joyful celebration, and quiet reflection in its pages, and Bisaillon is the rare illustrator who creates art to reflect the meaning, rather than the syntactical trappings, of poetry. Readers will eagerly make their way through the pages, but after they reach the end, will find that one page that they find themselves coming back to again and again. ( )