Body Music: Poems about the Noises Your Body Makes

Rhymes and reflections on body noises, from groans and giggles to sneezes, wheezes, and snores.

“Cough heads north, / fart goes south. / One by bottom, / the other by mouth.” Though the authors will no doubt be slapping their foreheads for neglecting to mention that there’s a word for tummy growls (“borborygmus”), they otherwise definitely deserve claps on the shoulder for this effervescent set of verses on sounds we produce…awake and asleep, voluntarily or otherwise. San Vicente’s rubbery figures, mostly a light- or dark-skinned array of young folk, blast or blow in theatrical accompaniment, and prose notes in the margins expand on each knee-slapping topic with explanations of…

The crowd-pleasing premise makes this a snap for reading solo or to virtually any audience.(Picture book/poetry. 6-8)—Kirkus Reviews, Kirkus

Yolen and Van Cleave give voice to bodily noises—from butts that “BOOM” to giggles and gasps—in a riotously silly poetry collection perfectly tuned to a toilet humor–loving audience. Describing incidental body noises such as “bumbling,/ crumbling, rumbling, stumbling” stomachs, the authors capitalize on explosive consonants and rhythms to embed a snappy musicality in the text. They strike a balance between education and absurdity, pairing the poems with scientific facts and related trivia on topics including music made with bodies (“West Africa’s hambone, Ethiopian armpit music”), wheezing…

K-Gr 2–Short, humorous poetry explores all the different ways the human body makes “music,” from burping, snapping, and creaking, to cracking, coughing, and laughing. “Cough heads north, fart goes south. One by the bottom, the other by the mouth.” Each poem, sans one, is presented on a colorful spread, with text integrated into the picture. Additional information is called out in a sidebar on most pages: a question mark icon identifies explanations behind various body noises. A light bulb icon identifies interesting trivia on the topic, i.e., “Charles Osborne, an Iowa farmer, hiccupped for 68…

VERDICT Funny, fact-filled, and succinct, this title will have broad appeal beyond the elementary aged audience it is intended for. A recommended first purchase.