Lewis, J. Patrick. National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems That Squeak, Soar, and Roar! Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4263-1009-6
Poetic Elements: Rhyme abounds throughout this book.
Onomatopoeia is highlighted in the poem "Luna
Moth" that reads, “Tick-tick-ticking-all silver-green.” The anonymous poem "Bull and Ox" models the use of simile, “A bull acts like a bully.”
Personification is prototyped in Marilyn Singer’s poem "Beavers in November" where the beaver speaks in first person, “You
pat, I gnaw, I pile, You store.” "The Walrus" by Jack Prelutsky combines alliteration
and assonance: “The widdly, waddly walrus has flippery, floppery feet” and “The
thundery, blunder walrus has rubbery, blubbery hide.” Janet Wong uses imagery in her poem "Blue Jay" when the interpretation of an
alert sound the Blue Jay makes is code for “Hawk incoming! Fight!” These are
only a few examples of the many, many poetic elements that can be found in this
anthology about animals.
Appeal:
Providing an assortment of poets and poetry styles will beg those short
in attention to stay tuned. The quantity
of poems and photographs that are included are a distraction (in a good way) to
keep the reader responsive. Observing how God has uniquely designed and equipped
each animal to live will leave readers in awe of HIS awesomeness. New insights about these creatures will be
learned by all who interact with this book and will peak curiosities to want to
learn more.
Overall Quality: The design and organization of this book have
been well conceived. The book is
oversized for visual purposes. The poems
are appropriately written for both young and old people alike to enjoy. To fully appreciate the book, one must look
at the photographs, too. Most are from
photographers that were at the right place, at the right time to be able to
capture such unusual shots. A variety of
poetry styles are used and mixed throughout.
Depending on the photograph, depends on the number of poems that are featured
on the page as well as its location. All
of the poems are written in the same size font.
Poem spacing depends upon the type of poem that has been written. The poem "The
Anteater" written by Douglas Florian is included in this anthology and it
takes up more room than usual because it is a shape poem. On the contrary, J.W. Hackett shares a haiku
poem about sparrows which is a concise 3-line poem. This book does not
necessarily make me want to read more poems by J. Patrick Lewis who put the
compilation together, but after reading various poems within the book, I would
consider seeking out other featured poets that are published within the book.
The Poets: The US Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick
Lewis, has compiled this book to feature many outstanding poets. Some of the notable poets include: Robert Frost, Jack Prelutsky, Emily
Dickinson, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen.
Those poets less known include:
Edward Lear, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, and Norma Farber. Some of the poems in this book are included
in other books. For example, "Mother’s Plea" by Lee Bennett Hopkins is
also featured in his book City I Love which was written solely by
Hopkins. This book is an anthology that
teaches from various sources about animals.
Layout:
The book is very nicely organized.
It is 183 pages in length and has 200 poems about animals and includes
many photographs. It is not intended to
be read all at once cover to cover, but to pick and choose randomly in no
specific order. An introduction is
written by J. Patrick Lewis who hand selected the poems for this book, which is
followed by the Table of Contents. The
animal poems in the Table of Contents have been grouped together in various related
animal characteristics: The Big Ones, The
Little Ones, The Winged Ones, and The Water Ones, etc. After all of the poems
have been shared, there is a section called “Writing Poems About Animals.” It segments about various styles of poetry
writing and then gives an example for each of the following types: couplet, shape poem, haiku, limerick, free
verse, and cinquain. A “Resources” page
follows allocating a selected bibliography of children’s books on
wordplay. Some of those include: acrostics, anagrams, epitaphs, lipograms,
parodies, rebuses, and reversos. Thus it
is probably quite obvious that there is a variety of poetry styles used
throughout the book, but all pertain to animals in some way. The Index is organized four different
ways: Title, Poet, First Line, and
Subject. Text credits and photo credits
help to conclude the book. Background
information is not included about the poets or their poems. However, the more notable poets have several
poems published in this book compared to those less known only having single
poems featured.
Spotlight Poem: The poem "Zebra" (shared below) would be a great anticipatory set to use with teaching
critical thinking skills on multiple perspectives. I would follow by reading several of Doreen
Cronin’s books Diary of a Spider, Diary of a Worm, and Diary of a Fly. By discussing the point of view that each book
is written from, students would learn to analyze and think more critically. Students
could then pick their own animal and apply this lesson by creating several
diary entries told from the perspective of that animal. Without divulging the animal, students who
wanted could volunteer to read an entry or two aloud and see if classmates
could guess which animal the point of view is coming from.
“Zebra”
written by Gavin Ewart
White
men in Africa,
Puffing
at their pipes,
Think
the zebra’s a white horse
With
black stripes.
Black
men in Africa,
With
pipes of different types,
Know
the zebra’s a black horse
With
white stripes.
