The title of this first collection of children’s poetry sums it up: food, animals, and whimsy take centre stage. Vanilla Gorilla is a mix of nonsense verse, family life poems, and a lone haiku. A good dollop of nonsense logic and interesting rhythms make most of these poems winners. “My Uncle’s Underwear” has a nice nursery-rhyme bounce to it. The tongue-twister refrain of “Mackery Mockerel Pickerel Pike” changes every stanza, so it’s a challenge to remember, let alone say, correctly – and readers should have a lot of fun trying. “Grandma Dances Anagrams” is a very clever poem, with a nice design touch – the anagrams are in capitals to help the reader find them. Then there is the lovely “Haiku,” in which a grandmother’s eyes are likened to Japanese butterflies.

William H. New is an academic well known for his work on Canadian adult writers. He’s dropped the H. for this book, perhaps to adopt a less formal tone. He’s also dropped a liberal sprinkling of Canadian place names into his poems, bringing to mind Dennis Lee, and, more recently, Robert Heidbreder (Eenie Meenie Manitoba). This device works best when the names are integrated into the structure, as in the anagram poem: “There’s a MAN in MANitoulin/And a PIG in WinnIPeG….”

The illustrations, though energetic, are a disappointment. Bevis’s palette of strong reds and oranges and deep blues is more garish than cheerful. There are a few bright spots, such as the friendly cover picture of a gorilla holding a vanilla ice cream cone. And the concrete poem “Conga Line” is enhanced by the snake and jungle camouflage around it. But overall, the illustrations do not do justice to the text. However, this shouldn’t prevent children from preschool to Grade 3 from enjoying the book.