An Eyeball in My Garden: And Other Spine-Tingling Poems - Hardcover

Editor Jennifer Cole Judd was born on Halloween, which explains her love of all things spooky. She lives in Texas, writing and tending to her five little monsters.

Editor Laura Wynkoop has always believed in ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night. She and her family live in San Dimas, California.

Illustrator Johan Olander is the author and illustrator of A Field Guide to Monsters and A Field Guide to Aliens. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and young daughter.

Gr 4-6–These 44 poems cover all things creepy in a variety of ways. Some of them are unsettling, such as “The Corner,” in which a mysterious “no-shape” sits in the corner of the room, “A No-Shape./A hint of eyes,/A dark you cannot see out of.” Others are funny, like “Ghost Fish,” which tells of the ghost of a dead pet goldfish that haunts the toilet, determined not to be forgotten. Still others revel in grossness. “Mummy's Menu” features dishes like “Kidney stew with chunks of spine,/Pickled brains in zesty brine.” Each poem is decorated with a humorous or macabre black-and-white drawing. The collection straddles the line between scary and innocently goofy, and some of the selections are a little inconsistent. For larger poetry collections.–Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MAα(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.