My rhino plays the xylophone by Graham Denton

Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN 9781472904560
(Age: 5+) Recommended. Poetry, Rhymes, Read aloud. What a treat! I can imagine kids of all ages laughing hysterically at these poems. Older kids will groan at the puns and pretend they are not amused, but everyone, including adults will get quite a kick from the range of funny poems in this slim book. I could not resist reading them out loud to anyone who would listen, and in emergencies, read them out very loud to myself and the dog.
The title poem has rhyming stanzas of eight lines, every line saying what instrument each of the animals in his house plays, ending with the refrain 'if you're a fan of music, you'll just love it at my house'
Nearly eighty poems are presented in this book, each of which will evoke a snigger, a titer or a belly laugh. Many are longer poems with several four or eight line stanzas, some are much shorter:
Said a duck when buying lipstick, . . .
as she took it to the till:
'I have neither cash nor credit
Please just put it on my bill'

There are a number of limericks to change the pace somewhat,
I can never get down from my camel.
I keep constantly coming unstuck.
And its cleat to me I'm
merely wasting my time -
you can only get down from a duck!
All in all a wonderful collection of poems to read aloud, read to yourself, play around with, or use as models to encourage budding poets to try their hand. Subtitled, Poems to make you giggle, the book certainly achieves that.
Fran Knight