THE HIPPOPOTAMUS THESAURUS
Each poem in the collection is a highly imaginative rhyming embodiment of a peculiar (and often downright funny) word, with poems titled “Pottle,” “Quixotic,” “Hullabaloo,” and “Flibbertigibbet” (and yes, that is an actual word). A full glossary at the end defines each word, in addition to some trickier words found throughout the book. The fun is in reading the poem for a sense of what the title word means before checking the glossary for the accuracy of your interpretation. In “Bibliopole,” the speaker lists his most prized books (“Beowulf, Iliad, Anna Karenina, Dickens and Poe, / The Great Gatsby, Don Quixote, even Thoreau. // Be careful, don’t touch, these are exceedingly rare, / the pages are old so they could easily tear”), and the page includes an illustration of a proud Santa-like man in his library apron holding his precious books. “Quomodocunquize” is accompanied by an illustration of a young woman with blond hair wearing a business suit and tending her lemonade stand: “I must be clear, everything here has a price, / no freebies here, not even the ice. // The lemonade is a quarter, / the cup is a dime, / I also charge for the straw, / and that isn’t a crime.” Vinson’s illustrations are whimsical line drawings with muted watercolors, usually adding a little extra heft to the poems. For example, “Interrobang” is illustrated with a big-nosed question mark colliding with a mustachioed exclamation mark. The poetry is exquisite, the rhyming and meter feels just right, and the vocabulary has an invigorating, no-holds-barred feel to it. The book offers a rare and wondrous opportunity, mainly because there’s something practical at stake: uncovering the meaning of the title word. Even younger readers will likely delight in the musical rhythm, imagery, and silliness of the poems, at least until they’re old enough to engage with the vocabulary.
