An Armadillo Is Not a Pillow

P.J. Hammel is a professor of Education at the University of
Saskatchewan.

This is Lois Simmie’s second book of children’s poetry. It consists of 53 poems, all of which deal with topics of real interest to children: the playhouse, a trip to the zoo, loneliness, a puzzle, decisions, procrastination, and many others. In each, Simmie has captured the genuine feelings and concerns of children and she has expressed them as children might had they the vocabulary and maturity. Certainly children will recognize the reality of what she portrays. Some examples: “I had to go to the zoo today / In this horrible dreadful dress,” “I’m watching ‘Walt Disney’ Sunday night / With my homework still on the shelf” “Not doing a thing / That I know I should ... / Just ridin’ my bike /Cause it feels so good,” “We’re finished school for the Year!!! ... / Hey, you wanna come home and play school?”

Interwoven are a series of 11 brief, usually four-line, vignettes labelled simply, “Look #1,” “Look #2,” etc., which celebrate a child’s most fanciful creations and a mother’s most reasonable response: “Mommy, look! And please don’t scream, / Something’s eating my ice cream / You need to think of something, dear, / The way your ice cream disappears.” Anne Simmie has added to the effectiveness of her mother’s book with line drawings that make concrete the children’s real and imaginative creations.