LS 5603 Bow Wow Meow Meow

Florian, Douglas. Bow Wow Meow Meow: It’s Rhyming Cats and Dogs. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Inc., 2003.

ISBN: 0-15-216395-6

Using different varieties of poetry, such as rhyming couplets and a few examples of concrete poetry, Douglas Florain creates a fun world where dog, cats and their wild brethren share pages. The first part of the book contains eleven dog poems and begins with an introductory poem titled “Dog Log.” The book concludes with ten poems about cats and is introduced by the “Cat Chat.”

Douglas Florian’s art and poetry mesh well together. His paintings are folk-art like and lend a curious air to the sometimes curious poetry (a jaguarondi wears “jaguarondi-wear.”) I enjoyed reading the author's interpretations of the different breeds of dogs and cats represented. I was wishing more breeds would be represented to make a longer book!

The February 1, 2003 issue of Booklist calls it a “winning collection, both clever and silly, Florian again shows how much fun poetry can be.” Children may want to try their hand at creating their own concrete poetry after they read this book. Other titles they may enjoy are: Meow Ruff by Joyce Sidman, Come to My Party and Other Shape Poems by Heidi Roemer. Teachers and children’s librarians may want to share some of the longer and sillier poems in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot with any group that was excited by Florian’s poems.