From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-In these delightful transformations of 26 classic poems, Shapiro has taken the rhythms and meters of the originals and made them her own. Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" becomes "Oh, Mommy! My Mommy!," a lament from a kid stuck in the backseat on a long car trip. Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" becomes "Macaroni and Cheese" ("It was many and many a week ago/that I and my sister Louise/first tried out a food that you might know/called macaroni and cheese"). Each selection begins with apologies to the original poet. Although the best audience for this book might be English-major parents of seven- and eight-year-olds, most of the poems do have child appeal, at least on some level. Faulkner's comic watercolor-and-ink pictures add a light touch that is totally appropriate for this fun book. With apologies to John Donne, Shapiro notes in a brief foreword: "Do not ask for whom the poems are told./The poems are told for you." Indeed. A great concept with a highly appealing treatment.Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, ILCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Card catalog description
A collection of light-hearted parodies written in the style of such well-known poets as Emily Dickinson, Robert Burns, Christina Rosetti, Joyce Kilmer, and William Shakespeare.

About the Author
Karen Jo Shapiro is a clinical psychologist and writer who lives in North Carolina and Massachusetts. Because I Could Not Stop My Bike is her first book for children.

ANNOTATION

A collection of light-hearted parodies written in the style of such well-known poets as Emily Dickinson, Robert Burns, Christina Rosetti, Joyce Kilmer, and William Shakespeare.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This collection of light verse is more amusing in its concept than in its execution. The 26 poems are not exactly parodies, but each echoes a work by a well-known poet in its rhyme scheme or topic. Shapiro includes "apologies" to cite her models. For example, the tag "With apologies to Robert Burns ("A Red, Red Rose")" precedes Shapiro's "A Red, Red Nose": "Oh! My nose is like a red, red rose/ That's newly burnt in June." While readers may get a chuckle out of twists on familiar lines, Shapiro's more obscure burlesques may befuddle even sophisticates, e.g., the opening entry plays off lines in Cymbeline ("Bark, Bark! It's dark!" writes Shapiro). On the other hand, the title poem, based on Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," is funny whether the reader knows Dickinson's poem or not: "Because I could not stop my bike/ it kindly stopped for me./ Unluckily, it did not stop/ until it hit a tree." Like the poems, Faulkner's (Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving) watercolored pen-and-ink caricatures are serviceable, but they lack the imagination and verve of his previous work. Ages 7-12. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Sharon Levin

Okay, it does help to know the originals of these poems, but I still enjoyed them and I only recognized about half of them (which is embarrassing, considering I majored in English, o those many years ago). The title poem is a take off of Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" and is hilarious. Here's the first verse, "Because I could not stop my bike it kindly stopped for me. Unluckily, it did not stop until it hit a tree." A fun poetry book for kids, a great one to use in later years with the originals, and a fun gift for adult poetry lovers, so you just can't lose with this one. As it says on the table of contents, "Do not ask for whom the poems are told. The poems are told for you." 2003, Charlesbridge, Ages 8 to 13.

School Library Journal