Reviewed by Carisa Weeaks, MyShelf.Com
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When people hear the name Tim Burton, the first thing that pops in their minds are movies like "Batman", "Edward Scissorhands", and "The Nightmare Before Christmas", among others. Now Burton's macabre sense of humor has been bound - into a book, that is. This collection of poems about children who would definitely NOT be considered "normal" by most people's standards shows that there's a little "odd loner" in all of us that has never been understood. Each poem is about a kid who's trying to survive through some odd situations, but if you look at the poems and compare them to real life problems, you'll be amazed at how much these odd little beings are just like you and me!

Voodoo Girl

Her skin is white cloth,
and she's all sewn apart
and she has many colored pins
sticking out of her heart

She has a beautiful set
of hypno-disk eyes,
the ones she uses
to hypnotize guys.

She has many different zombies
who are deeply in her trance.
she even has a zombie
who was originally from France.

But she knows she has a curse on her,
a curse she cannot win.
for if someone gets
too close to her,

the pins stick farther in.

First of all, I want to warn everyone that this book is NOT for kids. It IS, though, a book for those of us who are big fans of Tim Burton's work with movies. His trademark illustrations fill the book with visuals of the children that permeate his imagination every time he picks up a pen. There are very disturbing endings to some of the poems (especially the title poem), and there are others that are just completely disturbing. This is definitely a "Halloween read for the strange" that I recommend for any Tim Burton fan.