As a companion volume to Vanilla Go rilla (1998), Llamas in the Laundry features children’s poetry with plentiful illustrations. The book’s strengths lie in a few nonsensical skipping rhymes with strong rhythms and vivid images that appear early in the book. British Columbia poet William New is clearly having fun with words, crafting them into catchy phrases that make you want to grab a skipping rope and hit the pavement.

The longer story poems, which make up most of the collection, are much less effective. “My Parents’ Friends” centres on a boy’s observation of his parents’ circle of friends: “One eats only sweet confections – One wears stripes in all directions – /Two are wider than they’re tall/And puff about The Wherewithal.” The rhymes are forced and the story comes off as goofy. Similarly in “Auntie Calamity Sank Through the Floor,” the story is incongruous. Long dashes are used heavily, as in other poems, to string together phrases and link ideas.

Vivian Bevis’s illustrations are large and loose. In many cases, the art follows the poetry quite literally, showing engineers rowing a train along a track and a sandwich that is taller than a boy. More strong, single images would have complemented the small, plain typeface of the poems. The most effective image is a woolly, long-lashed llama hanging out the laundry that accompanies the title poem. The illustrations of people are often flat figures that emphasize knobbly knees and square arms.

Some children might be motivated to experiment with their own playful rhymes after reading this – but it’s not in the same league as the stellar works of poets Sheree Fitch and Dennis Lee.