Rating: **** 4 stars

Illustrated Satoshi Kitamura,
The Carnival of the Animals: Poems inspired by Saint-SàÇns' music.
Walker, 2006.

This beautifully produced book with accompanying CD was the idea of the Poems on the Underground team — Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik and Ciciely Herbert who also read the poems; and the idea is inspired.  They asked 13 contemporary poets to write a poem for each animal in Saint-Saëns' musical Carnival and the brilliant Satoshi Kitamura is the illustrator.  Not only that, but the Apollo Chamber Players provide a fresh and immediate performance of the music interspersed with readings of the poems.

The multi-layered collaboration is exuberant.  Poets such as James Berry, Adrian Mitchell, Wendy Cope and Gillian Clarke match the pace and rhythm of language and image to the music, which although written in 1886 is still witty, lyrical and irresistible.  Kitamura's familiar bold inky style, lively images and humour stretch and deepen the characters in the music and in the poetry.  From illustrating Charles Causley's exquisite swan 'It is a music of the eye. The swan / Assumes the heavy garment of the stream...' to Gerard Benson's Fossils who become dinosaur skeletons playing clarinets and cellos, his imagination brings text, image and sound together to create a carnival for the senses.  Either book or CD can be enjoyed alone , but together the music, poetry and illustrations work in beautiful harmony to allow a deeper contemplation and enjoyment of all three elements.  Stunning.

Helen Taylor
March 2006, No. 157

Guide to the rating system:
***** 5 stars, unmissable
**** 4 stars, very good
*** 3 stars, good
** 2 stars, fair
* 1 star, poor