For the young and the young at heart, a delightful collection of poetry in tribute to the world's animals. Jayne Buscho, who majored in biology in college, then was drawn to more artful observation, celebrates the whimsical, fanciful, touching "near humanness" of creatures great and small with whom we share the planet. Her verse takes curious, keen observations of "A Katydid's Courtship;" "Bubba Slug's Picnic;" "Sarah and the Giant Octopus;" "Meeting in Mole Hole;" and "Moose, Goose, and Elegant Swan."
"Peculiar Primitive Platypus"
Created in haste from snippets of waste
And a hodgepodge of animal parts,
Its self-esteem an impossible dream
Before its life ever starts.
With an otter's frame, fur much the same,
A duck's bill and its webbed feet too,
A beaver's tail, eggs like a quail,
It's the size of a cockatoo.
Platypus at night, hidden from sight,
Leaves its burrow on Billabong Creek,
Then swims low, searching to and fro
For snails and worms with her beak.
Review: "Everything Jayne Buscho has done in life (biology teacher, grandmother, garden expert, poet) prepared her to write this tender, charming, frank, humorous, imaginative account of the world we forget about when we grow up. Let her show you the world through the eyes of a daddy long leg spider, let her share the bittersweet story of a dragonfly romance or get ready to meet the platypus, the animal made up of leftover parts of other animals."
-George Hower, Retired Garden and Home reporter
Santa Rose Press Democrat
Bio: JAYNE BUSCHO lives in Northern California with her husband and has been writing poems for her children and grandchildren for many years.
