retrieved from nanasbooksforkid.com on 3/19/2013

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant

Written by: Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by: Carin Berger

Published by: Greenwillow Books

Year: 2006

ISBN: 9780060543181

Critical Analysis:

This fun and creative Prelutsky work invites children and adults alike to laugh out loud as they enjoy the combination of Prelutsky’s word fun and Berger’s wonderful illustrations. The author cleverly combines a variety of animals with everyday objects to create new and hilarious creatures that are wonderfully and creatively illustrated by Berger with collages that are both amusing and unique. The rhythmic nature of the poetry invites the reader to share these poems out loud. This can be seen in The Pop-up Toadsters:

                               

                                                    The POP-UP TOADSTERS hop and hop.

                                                    Then startlingly, abruptly stop

                                                     And place in slots atop their heads

                                                     Fresh slices of assorted breads.

Younger children may not understand all of the wordplay but they will definitely enjoy the rollicking sound of Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant:

                                                    Behold the bold UMBRELLAPHANT

                                                    That’s not the least afraid

                                                    To forage in the broiling sun,      

                                                    For it is in the shade.

                                                    The pachyderm’s uncanny trunk              

                                                    Is probably unique,

                                                    And ends in an umbrella

                                                    That has yet to spring a leak.

And the fun of a Bulboa as it lights up its way with its brilliant behind. This is an all-around marvelous, fun filled read.

Awards, Honors, Prizes:

3x3 Children’s Book Award, 2006; Best of Show United States

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, 2007; Honor Book United States

Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2007; Bank Street College of Education; United States

Publishers Weekly Book Review Star Review, August 28, 2006; Cahners; United States

School Library Journal Book Review Star Review, October 2006; Cahners; United States

Connections:

Science: study the various animals and objects that are in each poem. Write a brief description of what each animal and object is and does.

Literature: create your own unique animals by combining an animal with another animal or object. Write a poem or paragraph about this new animal. Create illustrations with various art mediums and then create a class book

retrieved from barnesandnoble.com on 4/19/2013

A Foot in the Mouth

Selected by: Paul B. Janeczko

Illustrated by: Chris Raschka

Published by:  Candlewick Press

Year: 2009

ISBN: 9780763606633

Critical Analysis:

The author of this wonderful anthology has cleverly written the introduction directly to children. It basically tempts children to read, memorize, and recite these poems together and share them with an audience. The choices are organized into poems for one voice, tongue twisters, and two voices. These are followed by list poems, poems for three voices and short stuff that is just plain fun to recite. It is finished off with bilingual poems, rhymed poems, limericks, and poems for a group.  It gently lures readers by guiding them from poems just for one and ends with poems to be shared with a group.

The poems are selected from a wide range of sources and time periods. From the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll to Speak Up by Janet Wong, from Ping-Pong Poem by Douglas Florian to Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare this anthology shares a wide variety of poetry by many different authors with each one geared towards recitation.

Artwork by Chris Raschka, cleverly accent the text with watercolor, ink, and torn paper illustrations. They invite a second and even a third look with something so enticing and unique in each one that children and adults alike will be drawn back to them again and again.

Most of the poems have a distinct rhythm that lends them to choral recitation. Come Drum!, by Avis Harley is a wonderful example of the rhythmic nature of the majority of the poetry in this anthology.

                                                      Come, drum! Sound out the day!

                                                      Your humdrum frame has much to tell.

                                                      Roll out your rhythms and sweep us away.

Each stanza invites the addition of a variety of rhythm instruments such as drums, tambourines, or maracas. In certain sections adventurous students might even be enticed to dance as the poem pounds out the surf/ shakes out the song/ dances in our veins. All in all a great addition for classroom and home perusal.

Awards, Honors, Prizes

Parents’ Choice Award, 2009 Gold Poetry United States

Booklist Star Review, Feb. 15, 2009; American Library Association; United States

Star Review Publishers Weekly Book Review; Cahners; United States

School Library Journal Book Review Star Review, March 2009; Cahners; United States

Classroom Connections:

Cultural Arts: Practice performing Come, Drum! with dance and rhythm instruments

Social Studies: Finish off a unit on communities with a group recitation in costume of I Heard America Singing

These Hands

Written by Renee M. LaTulippe

Found in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School

Edited by Sylvia Vardell and Jane Wong

Published by Pomello Books: 2013

retrieved from hbook.com on 4/17/2013

Swirl by Swirl Spirals in Nature

Written by Joyce Sidman

Illustrated by Beth Krommes

Publisher: Hougton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston

Year: 2011

ISBN:  9780547315836

Honors/Awards:

Charlotte Zolotow Award, 2012 Highly Commended United States

Mind the Gap Award, 2012 Science made simple (youngest) United States

Booklist Book Review Stars, Sept. 1, 2011 American Library Association; United States

Kirkus Book Review Stars, September 15, 2011; United States

Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12, 2012; National Science Teachers Association; United States

School Library Journal Best Books, 2011; United States

School Library Journal Book Review Stars, September 2011; Cahners; United States

Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books for Youth, 2011; American Library Association; United States

Critical Analysis:

One part science book, one part poetry, and one hundred percent beautiful, Swirl By Swirl Spirals in Nature explores spirals in nature. Precise, crisp and clean, the free verse text progressively considers the almost infinite variety of ways that this versatile shape is demonstrated in the natural world. Sidman eloquently describes not only the protective nature of spirals but also their powerful and expansive nature. Her words “A spiral is a snuggling shape… coiled tight, warm and safe” coupled with Krommes scratchboard and watercolor washed illustrations of woodchuck, bull snake and chipmunk beautifully demonstrate the protective nature of spirals as these small creatures hibernate for the winter. She gradually progresses to the expansive nature of the universe with,

                                                            It stretches starry arms

                                                            through space,

                                                            spinning and sparkling,

                                                            forever expanding….  

and then cleverly draws the reader back to earth by returning to the beginning with,

                                                              ….or, it curls up

                                                              neat and small,

                                                              warm and safe.

                                                              A spiral is a snuggling shape.

The book is made complete with two pages of notes that expand upon the various ideas found in the poem.

Excellently written, beautifully illustrated and cleverly finished off with scientific facts about a variety of spirals shapes and the benefits they lend to nature, Swirl by Swirl is an excellent resource not only for the subject of literature but also of science.

Classroom Connections:

Art: Read this poem and then create various pieces of artwork using spirals. Perhaps cut a variety of shells in half so that students can dip them in paint or ink

Science: Read this poem and then research the different creatures illustrated. Have the students determine how the spiral benefits each 

These Little Buggers: Insect & Spider Poems

Written by: J. Patrick Lewis

Illustrated by: Victoria Chess

Published by: Dial Books for Young Readers, New York

Year: 1998

ISBN: 0803717695

Critical Analysis:  Watercolor and ink illustrations portray these buggy friends sporting shoes and toothy grins, while the fast paced, sometimes hilarious, wordplay and offbeat humor make up the content of this book by J. Patrick Lewis. Using alliteration,  such as that found in Insect Inspector (A Counting-Out Rhyme), or the rhythm and rhyme of The Love Song of the Rhinoceros Beetle, Lewis rollicks through bugs and beetles in a humorous fashion. Add a little dark humor as found in such poems as The Marriage of the Spider and the Fly and The Praying Mantis Waits, in which the “ladies” in both of these poems eat their male friends, and you have a collection that is sure to keep kids laughing.

While a couple of the poems fall a bit flat such as Vegetarian Spider and The Stinkbug and the Cricket, the majority of this work is well written and aptly suited to elementary school aged children. The Marching Song of the Captain Bugg is particularly suited to choral reading acting out motions to fit the poem. Children will enjoy the rhythm and motion found within this poem.

                                                I’m Captain Bugg of the Fifth Brigade.

                                                I’m underworked and I’m overpaid,

                                                And I eat my toast with marmalade.

                                                I’m Captain bugg of the Fifth Brigade,

                                                He’s Captain Bugg, a four-star bore.

                                                He hears a gun and he’s off to war,

                                                That’s what they overpay him for.

                                                He’ll fit right in to the Officers’ Corp.

                                                He’s a regular in the Army.

                                                I’m Captain Bugg, and I spent two years

                                                With the Horse Flyboys and the Bombadiers,

                                                And I got my wings (behind my ears).

                                                I’m Captain Bugg, and I spent two years

                                                As a regular in the Army.

                                                He’s Captain Bugg, the beetle nut

                                                Who infiltrated the Quonset hut.

                                                Of course they’d like to fire him! But

                                                They’ve gotta catch him first-hut-hut!

                                                He’s a regular in the Army!

Connections:

This is a wonderful work to connect poetry to science. Have the students choose a poem from the book and then research the bug/s spoken about in their chosen poem. Create a diorama and include the poem within the presentation.

Use poems such as The Marching Song of Captain Bugg or Midnight Blue or, The Cockroach’s Song for choral reading. Practice and perform for younger children.