Böcker av Fran Abrams

Arranging Words is Abrams' second chapbook collection. Like her first chapbook, The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, this book is a series of light-hearted poems that asks the reader to look at the world from a new perspective. These poems approach letters, words, and everyday phrases in a way that pokes fun at the eccentricities of the English language. For example, her poem titled "K Knows How to Hide and Seek" begins with the line "K knocks twice, but we only hear him once," reminds us how often "k" is a silent letter. The poem "Poetry Exercise" plays on the meaning of the word "exercise" with the line "Brain cells stretch, lift your arms, reach for words." Phrases are deconstructed into literal meanings, such as in the poem "Beside Myself" that asks, "Am I myself or the one beside myself?" This collection illuminates the quirks of the English language in a lively, humorous way while demonstrating a love for words themselves.

The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras is a collection of light-hearted poems on such topics as algebra, fractions, Newton's Third Law, inertia, Pi, and other math and science subjects you probably studied in school. Read deeper and it's a commentary on life and love. Fran Abrams loves Pythagoras because his theorem always works, whereas life does not offer much that is certain. In her poem "Ice Cubes," you'll understand about relative density as the cubes float in your glass of scotch. Algebra helps you decide whether to buy that candy bar. Percentages are simply fractions with fancy symbols. With titles like "Poetry is a Word Problem," "Define Infinity," and "Solve My Life," these poems will have you appreciating poetry, math, and science from a refreshingly different perspective. Poet Sandra Beasley says of this book, "Readers who prize the consideration of big questions, balanced against agile specificity of phrase, will delight in this quirky collection."

From the children of Victoria's reign to the kids of the new millennium, Songs of Innocence explores the seismic shift in attitudes to our formative years and reveals what has made successive generations young.

"Seven Kings" is a vivid insight into the daily life of seven average teenagers over the course of a school year. What does their world look and feel like - and how will they shape our country in the future?