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.
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