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Pages Aflame with Poetry

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The black-and-white drawings scattered throughout are amusing, but the poems are so good you don't really notice or need them. For the age group Lawson aims at, that is just as it should be.

KEEPERS Treasure-Hunt Poems By John Frank | Roaring Brook. $17.95 (ages 7-10)

Frank had the bright idea of writing poems about the idiosyncratic treasures, from polished stones to old baseball cards, that as they wait to be unearthed at the beach, in the attic, at the flea market, in the desert and elsewhere. Someone then had the even brighter idea of pairing his efforts with the jewel-like photographs of Ken Robbins. As with any treasure hunt, there are finds and duds. In "Globe," for instance, the photo outshines the verse. isn't exactly words on fire.) But sometimes the match just ignites, as in the lovely "Geode":

I cracked a stone egg

dark as smoke,

and found, inside,

a crystal yolk

as purple as

a sheet of sky

pulled over twilight's

closing eye.

Elizabeth Ward can be reached at warde@washpost.com.

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