If I Had a Million Onions

Anne Hutchings, a former elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Durham Board of Education, is an educational consultant.

This collection of 25 poems is an absolute delight from start to finish.
Fitch includes a poem to suit every taste, from the alliterative
“Sasquatch from Saskatchewan” to the tongue-twisting “Mr. Little
the Whittler” to the never-ending “shape” poem, “A Moving
Concrete Poem Found on a Sidewalk” to the downright silly
“Grampy’s Borborygmus.”

What child (or adult) has not, at one time or another, gone to great
lengths to return a library book, as described in “One Blizzardous
Nightstorm?” And who has not wondered “Who Said What When” and
heard “grownups say / ‘Someday you’ll know.’”

Young children will giggle at Fitch’s nonsense words—gallotting,
burtsied, gurgulation— and at the idea of poor unfortunate Vanessa
Vanastra falling into her “bowlful / Of noodles and pasta.”

On a more thought-provoking note, “The Children’s News Network”
describes the ideal newscast where the only news is good news, and “Do
Your Best Under the Circumstances” reminds us that although we cannot
be perfect, we can be “human human beings.”

There is plenty of variety in the length, form, and meter of the
selections; however, they all have one thing in common—Fitch’s
obvious love for language. Yayo’s charming and whimsical pencil-crayon
sketches add to the enjoyment. The illustrations combined with the poems
make it very easy to follow Fitch’s “Most Excellent Advice”:
“Read a poem a day.” Highly recommended.