Flamingos on the Roof

Genre: Poetry

Brown, Calef. Flamingos on the roof: poems and paintings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.  ISBN  978-0618-56298-5

Calef Brown puts together a fun book of poems.  This collection of 29 poems covers a little bit of everything.  You can meet new friends around every corner from Bob to the Appleton Twins and Medusa’s sister Sally to Bossy Casey.  You can enjoy some Alphabet Sherbet or a stormy meal at Weatherbee’s Diner.  You will also discover the Crystal Bowling Ball and meet the King of the Tire.  Calef Brown delivers fun and excitement with every turn of the page.

If you would please humor me for a minute, I would like to share a poem I wrote myself about Calef Brown and this book.

Calef Brown has rhythm,

Calef Brown has rhyme,

Take the time to read him

You will love him in no time.

Flamingo on the Roof

Just one of his many books

Full of funny poetry

Read it aloud, you might get hooked.

Silly and nonsensical

Each poem imagination abounds

Pictures help augment the poems;

If only there were sounds.

Every book and every poem

Calef Brown knows how to treat

Every word and every syllable.

His crazy poems just can’t be beat!

Calef Brown uses words that paint pictures, and he paints pictures that bring the poems to life.  “TV Taxi,” a favorite poem in this book, describes the ability to watch TV on any station as you travel.  The corresponding painting shows you all that amazing things you miss because you were too busy watching TV in the taxi.  The bright and colorful picture shows dinosaurs and UFOs, leprechauns and unicorns, and even a dodo near a tree of diamonds.  His illustrations really illuminate the poems and bring them to life.

New York Times #1 Best Seller in Children’s Picture Books
Featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition
Winner of the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry
A 2007 Children’s Book Council Choice


This quirky picture book moves from poem to poem with a great deal of colorful detail and over-the-top humor. From poems about “biscuits in the wind” and “the crystal bowling ball,” to ones about tiny baby sphinxes and Poseidon’s hair, these one-page free-verse poems will engage budding poets who want poems they can understand. ~Children’s Literature


Brown’s lively nonsense rhymes blend the mythic and the contemporary, as do his acrylic illustrations, part folk art, part postmodern. The wry mockery of the haikus will appeal to older readers, but even preschoolers will enjoy acting out poems such as “Combo Tango” (“Stomp like a buffalo. / Drop like a yo-yo. / Swing like a golf pro. / Flip like a hairdo . . . “). Words and pictures manage to be both clear and weird, an enjoyable mix. ~Booklist


Brown’s imaginative wordplay is matched by his acrylic paintings depicting people and places in unusual hues. . . . Silly it may be, but all the best kind, prompting the reader to see the world (slightly) askew and to delight in it. ~Hornbook

Students can follow Brown’s example and write their own crazy poems.  You can check out his website at http://www.calefbrown.com/.  Other books by Calef Brown include:

Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness    ISBN 9780547215402

Soup For Breakfast     ISBN 0618916415

Tippintown: A Guided Tour     ISBN 9780618149728

Dutch Sneakers and Flea Keepers: 14 More Stories     ISBN 9780547237510

Polkabats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories     ISBN 9780618111299