Book Review: Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer

Bibliographic Citation:

Singer, Marilyn. 2010. Mirror Mirror. New York, NY: Dutton Children's Book. ISBN: 0525479015

Book Review:

Mirror Mirror is a treat for all, no wonder it was a nominee for the Texas Bluebonnet Award last year! This book of fairy tale poems by Marilyn Singer leaves the reader wanting more. I loved the creativity and uniqueness in each poem, and think that kids will absolutely love this book. The "reverso" poems are very different from any other poetry book. These 16 rhyming poems talk about famous fairy tales but they give two sides to each story. Each poem is read going down the page and then the poem is written from the bottom up from another perspective. Most of the poems are short which is good for young children. I highly encourage students of all ages to read this book and think this would be a great book to share in the classroom. 

Josee Masse's illustrations were dreamlike and were a perfect fit for Singers poems. The colors were vibrant, but did not detract from the poems on the opposite page. I liked how Masse did split pictures to depict both poems, it went great with Singer's reverso poems. For example, in the Doubtful Duckling half of the page shows a little ducking and the other half shows a beautiful swan. 

In the back of the book, Singer discusses what a reverso poem is and how she came up with this idea. I loved how she added this at the end, I felt that both students and teachers would benefit from this and it's cool to see how the author got started. If you are looking for a fun poetry book to read, then look no further. This book is a win win for everyone and will leave you wanting to read more reverso poems. Or better yet create your own!

Spotlight Poem:

In Reverse

Who 
says
it's true
down 
is 
the only view?
If you believe that, 
this poem
will challenge you.
Up 
is 
something new. 

Something new
is
up.
You 
will challenge
this poem
if you believe that
the only view
is 
down.
It's true.
Says 
who?

Activity: 

After reading the book Mirror Mirror, I think it would be a fun challenge for students to create their own reverso poetry. Students can choose any topic and it can be of any length. Once the kids create their reverso poem, they can draw a picture like Masse's that depicts both meanings of the poem. After the students create their poems and draw illustrations, you can turn their poems into a classroom reverso book. 

Book Review: A Poke in the I: Collection of Concrete Poems by Paul Janeczko

Bibliographic Citation:

Janeczko, Paul. 2001. A Poke in the I: Collection of Concrete Poems. Candlewick Press: Cambridge, MA. ISBN: 0763606618

Book Review:

A Poke in the I is a collection of 30 concrete poems that were selected by Paul Janeczko. The book starts out with a very clever table of contents that is in the shape of a entry table. There is also a note from the editor page at the front that explains to the reader what a concrete poem is and gives a short  introduction. After reading the notes from the editor page, I was excited to read the concrete poems and as I turned the page I was immediately disappointed. The concrete poems were not what I was expecting, and did not think that they would be appealing to a young audience. Most of the concrete poetry books out there for kids are creative poems that are eye catching and fun to read. Most of the poems in this book only include a few words, and they came across as very underwhelming. There were a few poems that I enjoyed and felt that young students would enjoy too, such as "A Seeing Poem", "Eskimo Pie", "Giraffe" and "Swan and Shadow". All of these poems were created in a fun shape, which I think is what students will be looking for when wanting to check out concrete poems. 

Since this book is a collection of poems, the topics covered vary from giraffes to tennis to day dreaming. There isn't a consistent theme in this book, besides the fact that they are all concrete poems.The poems also vary by length, there are several poems that are less than 5 words and some that are quite lengthy. Chris Raschka's illustrations are very unique and at times do not accurately describe what the poem is talking about. The illustrations are almost a little to out there for young students to be able to understand.  

I wish that I could've given this book a much more positive review, but I guess we can't like them all! I do think that some of the poems in this book would be great for teachers to model how concrete poetry is created, but do not recommend young readers to read this book independently. 

Spotlight Poem:

Popsicle 
by Joan Bransfield Graham

Popcicle

Popcicle

tickle

tongue fun

licksickle

sticksicle

please 

don't run

dripsicle

slipsicle

melt, melt

tricky

stopsicle

plopsicle

hand all

s

t

i

c

k

y

Activity: 

As I stated above, I think that there are several good examples of concrete poetry that a teacher could use to show students what concrete poetry looks like. The poem "Popsicle" is a good example of a poem that could teach students how to write concrete poetry. Teachers can read aloud this poem and show on the document camera what it looks like. After the teacher discusses the characteristics of concrete poetry, she can challenge them to pick a object in the room and write a poem about it. Once they have their poem written, the will write the poem in the shape of the object that it is about. For example, if students choose to write about a pencil their final product will be in the shape of a pencil.

Book Review: Messing Around on the Monkey Bars: and Other School Poems for Two Voices by Betsy Franco

Bibliographic Citation:

Franco, Betsy. 2009. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and other School Poems for Two Voices. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 9780763631741.

Book Review:

Messing Around on the Monkey Bars: And Other School Poems for Two Voices is a great introduction for poetry with two voices. Franco does a great job explaining the purpose of this book and the directions for each poem. The directions are very straight forward and simple, which helps the younger students to read this independently. Before the author's note, there is a table of contents for the book. This book consists of 19 poems, all of which are school related. At the end of the book, Franco supplies the reader with several other "adventurous" ways to read the poems in the book. This is a great alternative for students who want to continue to enjoy the poems and try them out in new/fun ways.

All of the poems are based on events that happen in a school setting. The topics vary from new kids at school to library class to homework blues. All of these poems relate to students and will be sure to make them giggle. Franco does a great job adding humor to her poetry and creating a instant connection that will keep students interest. The two voice poem concept is very new to students, and they will be excited to get to read these poems with their friends or in class. Franco's poetry have a great rhythm to them and they are rhyming poetry. The poems will roll off the students tongues with it's simple wording and smooth flow. Jessie Hartland's illustrations are fun and inviting. The illustrations are very basic and almost resemble student like drawings. Children will enjoy seeing the colorful illustrations and appreciate the fact that they are not "perfect" drawings, instead they are more realistic of what a school age child would create.

I think that Messing Around on the Monkey Bars: And Other School Poems for Two Voices will be a hit among children and teachers. It's a fun way to introduce poetry and get students involved. There are not many poetry for two voices books available, but this book definitely helps make up for the lack of books in this genre.

Spotlight Poem:

Jump Rope Jingle

Come on in.
I'll jump with you.
It's double fun
to jump with two.

Jump, jump,
spin around.
Jump, jump,
slap the ground.

Turn to the east.
Turn to the west.
Choose the one
you like the best.

Jump, jump,
A, B,
C.

Jump, jump,
1, 2
3.

Turn in circles.
Keep the beat.
Feel the rhythm
in your feet!

Activity:

As I was reading this poem, memories started flooding back to me of all the jump rope chants we would do in elementary school. I then started thinking about how this poem would be a fun way to introduce poetry, with movement! After reading the poem as a class, students can create their own jump rope poems in partners. Once the poem is finalized, the partners can choreograph a jump rope routine or hand slap routine to the poem. The kids can also trade off saying the lines from the poem so that multiple people can join in on the poem when it is read.

Book Review: Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky

Bibliographic Citation:

Prelutsky, Jack. 2006. Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. ISBN: 9780060543174.

Review:

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is a fun, zany book of poetry about animal/object combinations. The animals vary from Alarmadillos to Panthermometers to Zipperpotamuses. Prelutsky's creativity shines through with this collection of 17 poems. All of them are silly and have a great rhyme. As you read each of these poems, you can't help but read them with a rhythmic beat. Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is a great introductory poetry book to share with students. Prelutsky makes poetry fun and something that students will want to check out. My favorite poem was, "The Bizarre Alarmadillos", a combination of a armadillo and a alarm clock. This poem does a great job appealing to the senses and as you are reading the poem you can almost hear the alarms going off. Below is a excerpt from this poem:

When they push their panic buttons,
buzzers buzz and beepers beep.
Brass alarms clang ever louder,
It's no wonder they can't sleep.

Can't you just hear the alarms ringing?

Prelutsky's ingenious poems are great for both adults and children. Carin Berger's illustrations are just as creative as the poems. Berger's pictures are bold and accurately describe what is being written about in Prelutsky's poems. The illustrations have a whimsical feeling and have a vintage look. The pictures are appealing to the eye and are sure to draw in the young readers attention. I really enjoyed this book as a whole and think it would be a great book to share in the classroom. It's amazincredible (amazing + incredible)!

Spotlight Poem:

The Tweasels of the Forest

The TWEASALS of the forest
Are considerate and sweet.
But unless they're busy tweezing,
They feel somehow incomplete.
They walk and walk around the woods
Upon a constant quest
For shrubs and trees that need a tweeze-
It's tweezing they do best.

The TWEASALS are well-meaning.
And they always try to please.
When anything needs tweezing.
They immediately tweeze.
They tweeze with great dexterity.
Facility, and flaire-
As long as tweezing's called for,
All the TWEASALS will be there.

Activity:

Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is a great book to use when teaching about visualization. I used this book with my second graders. I read the poems to the students and had them visualize what the animals looked like using the clues from the poem. After they had time to share their thoughts with a neighbor, I would show them the picture and see if it matched to the picture in their head. The students had so much fun doing this, they wanted me to keep going! This book has so many teaching points in it that I would highly encourage teachers to add this book to their personal classroom library.

Book Review: Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poems by Joyce Sidman

Bibliographic Citation:

Sidman, Joyce. 2006. Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN: 9780618448944

Review:

People always say to never judge a book by it's cover, but this time I did. I decided to pick up the book Meow Ruff by Joyce Sidman because the cover was absolutely adorable. The cover of this book is very appealing to a young audience, especially animal lovers. Meow Ruff is a book about a dog and cat who are sworn enemies and start chasing each other. As they go through the "big chase" a storm comes through leaving the dog and cat both scared and cold. This predicament leaves our main characters at a place where they have to decide to stick together or continue to be enemies. Meow Ruff is a silly story that children can really get into and have fun with poetry too.

Sidman does a excellent job creating concrete poems throughout the entire story. Every single picture in the story has a poem on it. From the clouds to the concrete to the picnic tables, Sidman doesn't miss a beat.  Her concrete poems were made up wonderful word choices, and I was impressed at how many words she can come up with to describe a cloud and tree. I also appreciated the fact that she didn't repeat her descriptions and she continued to think of new inventive ways to describe the surroundings.

The only down side that I saw to this book was that I felt it was a big overwhelming at times. I felt like I was missing out on some parts of the story because I was so transfixed by the concrete poetry everywhere. It took me several minutes to read each page because I felt that I needed to read every single word. I can see this being hard for students that struggle with focusing and would be worried that they might miss something because of all of the distractions.

All in all, I would still highly recommend this book to students who love animals and concrete poetry. I also think that it would be a great tool for teachers when explaining to students how to write concrete poetry.

Spotlight Poem:

large

white steamy

bread loaves rising

in the sun's bright heat, 

a billowing batch 

of cumulus

Activity:

I loved how Sidman wrote poems about every day things that you see outside. After reading this book, I think a great activity would be to go on an outdoor field trip. Once outside, the students can look at their surroundings and jot down descriptions about something in nature. For example: students can examine a tree and write down words or phrases that describe it. Once students have created a lengthy list of their observations, they can then sit down and create a concrete poem on that particular object.

Isbell Loves Kevin Henkes!

Last week, we did a Kevin Henkes author study with 1st grade. Each class came to the library for two days and got to rotate around to 4 different stations. At each station, the students got to read a Kevin Henkes book and do a related activity. One of the stations they read Sheila Ray the Brave and then got to create a word cloud on ABCYA. The students had alot of fun and if you would like to visit the unit website that I made you can check it out: https://sites.google.com/site/kevinhenkesunit/

Be sure to check out the pics below of the kids hard at work!

Got Poetry?

This month is Poetry Month and we have been celebrating poetry every day! This month I will be meeting with every class to discuss ways to read poetry. After we practice reading poetry in various ways, I set them free to roam the library and outdoor learning center to read poetry. It is so fun to see the kiddos having fun with poetry! The best part is that they are dying to check out poetry books after the lesson, which is the whole point. Or poetry section is hardly ever visited and we are now turning a corner. Below are some pictures of the kiddos enjoying poetry in the library.

Book Review: Got Geography : Poems Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Bibliographic Citation: 

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2006. Got Geography! New York, NY: Greenwillow Books. ISBN: 0060556021

Review:

Got Geography is a book that is composed of 16 poems by 16 poets. The poems have been compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins. All of the poems revolve around the topic of "geography". The topics vary from poems about the equator, longitude, latitude, land forms, compass and many more. This is a great book for any social studies lover and teacher. 

The book starts out with a table of contents that is easy for the reader to find specific poems. Since each poem is written by a different poet, they vary in size and rhythm. Most poems are rhyming and flow smoothly across the page, while some use a free verse format with no rhyming words. For the most part, these poems have a serious tone but there are a couple of poems such as "If I were the Equator" that have a funny undertone. The poem "Island/Isla" is a short poem consisting of two languages; English and Spanish. I felt that incorporating two languages into this book is a great way to include bilingual readers. 

Philip Stanton's illustrations are beautiful and are very appealing to the eye. He has used watercolors and graphite crayons to create a unique landscape that follows along with the geographical poem. The illustrations are very smooth and look like something that you would see in a art museum. 

Spotlight Poem: 

If I Were the Equator
By: Kathryn Madeline Allen

If I were the equator
I would have an attitude. 
I'd boast the most about my no degrees of latitude. 
I'd say, though there are other lines who run from east to west, 
with nearly 25,000 miles I clearly am the best.
My equidistance from the poles,
I'd mention with a laugh,
makes me the one-the only one-who

splits the globe in half.
Smack dab
between the Tropics.
with the sun high up above,
indeed,
I'd plead, 
what on Earth could there be
about me not to love? 

Activity: 

I think a "If I Were The Equator" would be a great introduction to a fun research project about countries/cities that are located on the equator. In this poem, it talks about all of the great things about being the equator. So I would ask students to study a map/globe and pick a city/country that is located on the equator. Once they have picked a location, they will do research and create a brochure for that particular location. In their brochure, they will discuss the land forms and reasons why people should visit that place. Students can also write a poem about their researched location and include it in their brochure. This is a fun way to use poetry as a introduction to a project and a great way to write poetry based on real life events.