I love when Katie puts me in a podcast episode with someone I admire. I know that my review and the interview logically have nothing to do with each other, but, in my head, I like to think of them as “the Jane Wattenberg/Julie Falatko episode” or the “Julie Falatko/Jonah Lehrer episode” (though Jonah Lehrer’s status has dropped about 6 billion points this past week).

So today it’s Julie Falatko and Douglas Florian! Douglas Florian has written so many books of poetry my kids have just eaten up. (Not literally, of course.) Especially Beast Feast and Dinothesaurus. Plus let’s not overlook the fact that not only are his poems amazing, but his paintings are so good that I secretly want to rip the books apart and frame each page. I’m honored to be sharing podcast space with him.

The book I review today is Wagons Ho! by George Hallowell and Joan Holub, illustrated by Lynne Avril. Now, you all know that I mostly like books that fit into the genre of Sophisticated Slapstick with Ridiculously Cute Animal Main Characters (or any of its subgenres, like Tantrum-Throwing Bunnies or Childhood Angst Poetically Realized). This book is longer than I usually like, but I’m so totally ok with that, because sometimes you have to go longer to fit into the genre of Brilliantly Executed Juxtaposition (which, yes, I’ve reviewed before). I’m not going to tell you any more, except to get this book before your next road trip.

You can check out the details on the podcast episode here, or find it in iTunes here.