Murder: the unlawful, intentional killing of a human being – a terrible crime. But murder stories are always fascinating. Who did it? And how? Or why? And was it murder, or just an unfortunate accident? Who will triumph, the murderer or the detective?
Ages 3-6. Little kids sick in bed will be cheered by this sprightly, silly picture book that shows lots of different ways that things can go wrong, starting with "Poor Cynthia centipede. She sprained 98 ankles playing field hockey." There's also Danny the Dalmatian, who breaks out in stripes, and Delia the dragon, who sneezes and burns herself. Each of the unfortunate animals appears in an imaginatively designed two-page spread, with the details of the pictures going for ultimate laughs.
While this is a worthwhile study and correctly identifies motivations and undercurrents, particularly in the author's choice of, mainly, Northern Irish poets, the fact that not even one of the exceptional women poets writing in Ireland today is included, means that the work does not reflect contemporary Ireland. Not in the whole, that is. Besides, the South also has a lot to share with the world. Maybe this is just an unfortunate choice of title? But the book is good: Neil Corcoran is one of Britain's most accomplished commentators on contemporary poetry.
