PERFORMANCE POETRY

Greenfield, Eloise. The Friendly Four. ILL. Jan Spivey Gilchrist. New York: Harper Collins Pub., 2006. ISBN: 978-0-06-000760-7.

Poetic Elements: Writing free-verse poetry allows Greenfield the freedom to mix up her style with various poetic elements.   Onomatopoeia is exhibited in The Race where Drum and Dorene say, “Huffing, puffing! Whew!”   In the same poem, “Leaning around the turns, churning our legs like bicycle wheels,” reveals the usage of simile.  The poem Tall Tale abounds with hyperboles.  “And in the winter, all the people would drag their sleds to the bottom of the hill, and then they would ride up.”  Just the opposite of what you would sensibly think is told to exaggerate and create wacky images.  Rhyme and assonance are mixed together in the poem Bummer Summer when the poem reads, “Summer’s a bummer,” or in the poem Party that says, “Let’s just be willy-nilly silly.” The element of simile is used in the poem Someone when the character, Louis, says, “My new mama really looks at me, not at all like the other two.”  Many fresh, yet familiar images are created by reading this anthology.

Appeal:  Greenfield notoriously emphasizes the things that kids love to do throughout this book, so it will definitely appeal to young people and retain their attention.  The sense of familiarity with what each poem shares is what makes the poems so much fun to read.  The poems also create moments in which to ponder because life is full of circumstances and situations: some we create ourselves and others attach themselves to us because of our associations.  The language is easy to understand and will readily stimulate the emotions and imagination of young readers.

Overall Quality:  The poems are perfectly suited for young readers to read and synthesize.  There are 34 poems that are arranged over six specific friendship groups.  Some of the poems in each grouping are poems written about individuals and others are written with multiple voices as the friendships bloom.  Each character in the book has an assigned text color that their voice is written in.  For example, the poem Who I Am is an individual poem about a boy named Drummond.  It is completely written with red text.  If you flipped through the book, your eyes could find random red text in other poems featuring multiple voices, but the red text would be reserved for the voice of Drummond.  Distinctive line breaks are utilized throughout the book to allow the reader time to ponder the characters words and actions.  The illustrations are created by Jan Spivey Gilchrist who has illustrated several award winning books.  Her illustrations in this book help deepen a greater understanding and appreciation for each poem and help bring the imaginations’ of the kids to life.  This book was easy to read and offered me a moment to step back in time and think about what my imagination was like when I was a kid as well as the varied dynamics that different friendships take on. Greenfield is a thoughtful writer to admire and appreciate.

The Poets:  Eloise Greenfield is the single poet who has written this anthology of poems regarding friendship.  She has authored over 30 children’s books and was the 11th

winner of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.  She has published three other collections of poetry for children and has published three single poem picture books, too. Greenfield’s poems have been anthologized many times with other poets.

Layout:  Greenfield is the featured poet in this book and could very easily be familiar to young readers that like to read.  Many of her poems have become “classroom staples” that teachers tend to gravitate in using for their classrooms.  Although the book is seven years old, its relevancy is ageless.  There are a total of 34 poems in this book.  The table of contents has divided the poems into six main groupings.  The first group shares poems of one child’s experiences.  The second group shares poems of two kids building a friendship.  The third group shares poems of three kids building a friendship together.  The fourth group shares poems of four kids building a friendship together.  The fifth grouping shares poems of the four kids having fun and using their imaginations.  The last set relays the feelings and emotions that come when a good friend moves away.  The time span of the book is from the beginning of summer to its end.  Greenfield writes her poems using free-verse.  There is a nice mix of individual poems and poems that use several voices.  Different text colors are used in poems featuring more than one voice to make it defining for whose voice is speaking.  Although background information is not provided for each poem, the poems (when read in order) share the strong bonds that form in friendship over time.

Spotlight Poem:  This would be a nice book to share during the first week of school with a Fourth grade class.  Taking time to focus on the first poem in the book called Who I Am could model to students how they could write a poem about themselves to reveal who they are as an activity in getting to know their classmates.  For even more fun, students could write their poems and the teacher could read them aloud and have classmates try and guess which friend in the class wrote the poem.

Who I Am by Eloise Greenfield

Drum:  I’m Drummond Anthony Liggins,

            mostly known as Drum,

            who likes to wrestle,

            likes to run,

            likes to count

            things.

            I count my footsteps

            from the porch to the gate,

            and I wait.

            Wait for fun to find me

            in my big back yard.