Lori Patrice’s, Witches’ Brew, is a Halloween, poetry exclusive, that keeps our audience amused, actively involved, and entertained with plenty of spook-takular rhymes and twisted hair-raising happenings!
Strange warnings of, ‘beware’, sends up bright red flags in the superstitious piece entitled ‘I Never Go’, a poem that tells the tale of the old creepy house on the neighborhood corner block - the one no one ever dares to approach. The poem has a mythical appeal to it and intricately outlines why it’s a bad idea for anyone to step near the old house. But for us, ‘the gargoyles of stone with teeth stained red’, are enough!
This book is complete with mind-grappling graphics, and Patrice does a fine job at uniting creativity and skill, as the power of homonyms plays with our perspective in the humorous piece, ‘Lost Again’; a poem where a young girl boasts about her “one-of-a-kind mummy”, who’s seemingly disappeared! Or has she? Well, without the visual on this, one might ask, “what makes this little girl’s mummy so special?” In return, the sweet voice in the poem innocently answers saying, “my Mummy is like, no other around, because mummy comes from under the ground.” The kids love the unexpected twist!
Plus, the thought process behind the theme and concept of the poem is nothing less than original, inventive, and imaginative! Patrice’s savvy ingenuity turns this poem into a homonymous riddle that cleverly teaches some of our listeners the difference and similarity of the word, mummy.
From a technical view, we absolutely love the fact that she chooses to implement a clean-cut, precise rhyme scheme, adding a good tempo to the flow of the reading, while making the rhymes effective and impacting for a younger, more interactive audience. Also, the author’s word diction, especially for closing rhymes, proficiently interlinks single ideas to an entire series of events occurring between verses, dramatizing the effect of the word’s meaning pertaining to the context in which it is being used, as in the following example:
“a bat takes flight, through dead of night”; properly linking the act of flying, with the image or description of when this occurs by using the noun, ‘night’.
Lori skillfully enhances her rhyme scheme by transitioning her choice of end-rhymes rather than maintaining the same assonance throughout the entire duration of the piece, as in the following poem ‘Costume Contest’, one of our group’s favorites! This poem begins with an end rhyme of -ing, transitions into -oom, and so on, refraining from an overuse of repetition. Very well-organized, confident flow!
Another gold star for this book is for the inclusion of quality illustrations. Our children proactively engage in depicting and discussing the attention-grabbing illustrations, and we must say that the illustrator, Palette Concepts, did an excellent job at bringing certain verses to life, like the illustration of the skeleton wearing a young girl’s clothes from the poem ‘Sneaky Skeleton’! The image is so funny to imagine, the picture gives us all a good laugh! And the classic black-and-white tone of the drawings add a spark of suspense to the book’s “All Hallow’s Eve” theme, reminding us all of the witchful darkness surrounding Halloween’s fear-inspiring aura.
The thought of seeing a real ghost gives us chills after reading ‘The Towns People’, an ironic, supernatural that sets the scene for creepy apparitions, like ‘Hooch’, the town’s ghost-dog, and Peggy, who once upon a time owned the town’s flower shop…but no more. And don’t forget to make sure the curtains in your bedroom are closed tight to avoid being bathed in the sky’s ‘Deadly Moonlight’! Because the transformation and terror that occurs when eyes set sight on a full moon, will only leave you “locked in a cage, with hunger and rage.” Oh, no! But - it’s only a myth, right?
In conclusion, we can honestly say that, Witches’ Brew, is a superb book for children and families. It’s Halloween theme is attractive and appealing to all those who celebrate the holiday, using many familiarities such as potions (Witch’s Brew), vampire bats (The Chase), spirits (Séance), pumpkins (Pumpkin Patch), and more!
The book is reader-friendly, using a nice mixture of relatable, comprehensible and appropriate nouns, verbs, adjectives, and interjections. And the author is vigilant enough to not underestimate the mind of a young one by never oversimplifying the nature of this special holiday (or her poetry). With that being said, Realistic Poetry International is extremely excited to present this preternatural book of poetry with a 5-star rating!
So, get your copy today and join the ‘party of fun’, everyone’s invited! Just one thing - don’t forget to read the invitation, first (pg. 31)!
Outstanding work, Lori!
https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Brew-L-Patrice-ebook/dp/B075J7MPVQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1514219538&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=lori+patrice+witches+brew+brew
