FLORIAN POETRY

Florian, Douglas. Dinothesaurus. La Jolla, CA: Beach Lane Books, 2009. ISBN:  978-1-416-97978-4.

Poetic Elements:   Florian uses an assortment of poetry elements and varies their use throughout the collection of poems in this book.  He has a knack for using clever wordplay.  Rhyme is probably the easiest element to recognize overall.  The phrases “tough as tanks and hard as nails,” “heavy clubs swing from our tails,” and “we have heavy-armored skin,” are all taken from the poem “Ankylosaurus.”  They exhibit the use of idioms.   Alliteration is heavily emphasized in the poem “Pterosaurs” almost making fun of the letter P that is kept silent when pronouncing the dinosaur’s name.  “With widespread wings and pteeth pto ptear,” is a key example where Florian created a line that entailed alliteration, but added his own touch of humor by placing the silent letter P in front of the “T” words.  In “Brachiosaurus” onomatopoeia is modeled in the written phrase, “It traveled very   s   l   o   w  .”  Both the literary elements of alliteration and onomatopoeia are exaggerated in a combined effort in the poem “The End of Dinosaurs” when the words stutter, “ ch-ch-choke” or “c-c-cold.”  Florian clearly has an impressive record for succinctly presenting ideas rich in poetry components.

Appeal:  This book is sure to be a “babe magnet” in being able to attract the interest of young people with no problems.  The touch of humor that trickles throughout the poems is quite amusing.  Florian’s artwork adds another layer of appeal mixed with funniness.  Although dinosaurs and humans did not live simultaneously, Florian constantly combines the two interacting with each other in his pictures in all sorts of ways. For instance, would a dinosaur really help scratch a boy’s back because he had an itch?  Of course not!  He cleverly plays real words off of words that don’t really even exist. The comical sensation keeps the poem in motion. 

Overall Quality:  The poems in this book are definitely fitting for young people to read and listen to.  They are all about dinosaurs and what they were like when they walked the Earth.  The arrangement of the poems are perfectly in balance with a beginning poem to get the reader ready to learn about the dinosaur ages and a concluding poem that mentions various possibilities for why dinosaurs became extinct.  The formatting of the poems is pretty similar in looks and size.  Assistance in helping pronounce the dinosaur names is included before the reading of the poem.   The design of the book resembles that of a picture book.  The illustrations are also created by Douglas Florian and were done with gouache, collage, colored pencils, stencils, dinosaur dust, and rubber stamp on primed brown paper bags.  They are abstract creations, but a perfect choice since dinosaurs and humans are mysteries to each other.  I would definitely recommend reading Florian poetry books to others.  He is doubly talented in being an artist and writer and is able to share nonfiction information in a tangible way by writing poetry books.

 The Poets:  Douglas Florian has written the collection of poems in this book.  It is an anthology that focuses on different kinds of dinosaurs that once lived.  Florian is a notable poet who has written many books that mostly pertain to animals and ideas of nature.  He has received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and has received an ALA Notable Children’s Book Award.  He is also an accomplished artist who provides all of the artwork for his books.  He features his abstract art in solo and group exhibitions. Florian’s website can be viewed at http://www.douglasflorian.com

Layout:  This book is relatively new, but even if it was older, the poems in this book would still be current because they are about dinosaurs which are extinct.  The award winning Douglas Florian is the only poet represented in this book.  There are a total of 20 poems.  Besides a beginning poem to open up about dinosaurs and a closing poem to conclude about dinosaurs, Florian has squeezed 18 poems that each speak of a different named dinosaur in his book.  The first poem in the book is called “The Age of Dinosaurs” and introduces the time periods when the namely beasts were alive.   The last poem is called “The End of Dinosaurs” and relays possible theories of how dinosaurs became extinct.  Each poem features a two-page spread.  Florian’s paintings seem to take precedence and dominate the featured poem which is squeezed in somewhere.  The poems are written in the same font and size throughout, but are relocated to a different spot for each layout depending on the illustration.  Each poem written is plainly titled by the name of the particular dinosaur being recognized.  The spacing between the poem title and the poem provides room to share pronunciation help with how to correctly say the dinosaur’s name and then mentions in parenthesis a translation.  For example, Ankylosaurus which would be pronounced AN-kee-lo-SAW-rus (fused lizard).   Some of the poems are written in a first-person view where the featured dinosaur is the one speaking personally about itself.  The book includes a table of contents, “glossarysaurus”  for glossary, a page sharing information on different dinosaur museums and fossil sites, and a selected bibliography with further reading suggestions. 

Spotlight Poem:  Sharing the book Dinothesaurus in its entirety, would be my way of getting students excited about starting a thematic unit of study on dinosaurs.  Before beginning the book I would have pre-written all 18 dinosaur names on separate little papers.  If I happened to have had a class of 20 students, I would write “Free Pick” on two of the slips and mix them in with the others.  I would tell students that each of them will be getting to report more information than what is shared in Florian’s poem about the dinosaur they hand pick on their slip. Being good listeners as I read Dinothesaurus as they anxiously wait to draw a dinosaur name are my hopes.

I also like the idea of reading the poems through and then deciding what is fiction and what is fact for each poem.

An additional alphabetizing activity that I would want to include sometime during the dinosaur unit of study would be to print out each dinosaur name large enough for others to see.  Each student would hold the name of the dinosaur they were assigned. I would randomly pick 5 students to stand up with their card and ask if they could order themselves in ABC order.  I would have those 5 in order remain standing and pick 5 more friends and ask them to do whatever rearranging they needed to do to now get all 10 of them in alphabetical order.  Those still seated could help those that were standing.  I would then pick 5 more students to stand up and see if they could work together to figure out the order now.  One last round of students being added to the standing group would get everyone alphabetized and refreshed on how the rules for alphabetizing work.

“Seismosaurus” by Douglas Florian

SIZE-mo-SAW-rus (earthshaking lizard)

Seismosaurus:  tremendous in size.

Seismosaurus:  stupendous lengthwise.

Seismosaurus:  could make the earth shake.

Seismosaurus:  as large as a lake.

HOPKINS COLLECTION

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. City I Love. Marcellus Hall. New York: Abrams, 2009. ISBN:  978-0-810-98327-4

Poetic Elements:  Imagery, rhyme, onomatopoeia, metaphors, alliteration, and assonance are all strong components that can be found throughout this book. 

Appeal:  The appeal to young people is a definite.  It is an interesting topic that would enrich a child’s insight. For those that have had the opportunity to see some of the places that are mentioned in the poems, it will allow for a more concrete reading; for those lacking the in-person experience, they can still gain an awareness and knowledge that is gleaned from the poems.  The illustrations by Hall truly help to form a bridge for understanding with the words.

Overall Quality:  Each poem has been well executed by Bennett and is consistent in quality.  The collection stimulates the idea of what other cities are like to visit and highlights the more well-known landmarks of each.  The style of the hustle and bustle of each city is quite unique. This book is perfect in extracting the curiosity for unfamiliar spaces; and widening the horizons for those that have an itch to travel and see the world over.

The Poets: Lee Bennett Hopkins is a well-known writer of poetry and has written all of the poems in this book.  All of the poems in this anthology were written by Bennett between 1971 and 2009 and focuses more on the visual or physical aspects that come to mind when mentioning various well-known cities throughout the world.  Hopkins has his own website at http://www.leebennetthopkins.com/

Layout:  Each poem focuses on something unique about the city in which the poem is being written about.  The illustrations are perfectly tailored to match each poem and were made with brush and ink and watercolor on paper.  For example, the poem TAXI! is written in reference to London, England.  The illustrations include taxis, traditional double decker buses, the Tower Bridge, Thames River, Big Ben, and The Palace of Westminster Abbey.  The 32 page book does not have a table of contents or index, but duplicates a world map on the front inside cover and again on the back inside cover.  All of the cities that have a poem written about them have a dedicated dot for where they are on the map compared to the rest of the world.

Spotlight Poem:  Before sharing Bennett’s poem “Sing a Song of Cities,” I would ask students to help me recall the five senses.  I would ask them to think about them as I read the poem, and to figure out which of their senses is most strongly used in this poem.

As a follow up, a student would identify to the class the sense most strongly used- ears for hearing.  As a class, students would help brain-storm ideas out loud for various sounds that could be heard in a city.  This would allow the word urban to be taught.  Students would read out of their social studies books about urban areas to reinforce the word.  Students would then switch gears and think about how the sounds would be different in learning what a suburban area entails.  Again, students would read in their books that taught about suburbs and suggest sounds that would be familiar to that area.  And finally, students would learn about characteristics that make up rural lands by reading that portion from their social studies books.  Students could then think of what sounds would be identifiable in a rural area.

“Sing a Song of Cities” by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Sing a song of cities.

If you do,

Cities will sing back

                                       to you.

They’ll sing in subway roars and rumbles,

People-laughs, machine-loud grumbles.

Sing a song of cities.

If you do,

Cities will sing back.

Cities will sing back

                                       to you.

SCHOOL POETRY

Salas, Laura Purdie. STAMPEDE!  Poems to Celebrate the WILD SIDE of School.  Steven Salerno. New York: Clarion Books, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-618-91488-3

Poetic Elements:  The use of figurative language in this book abounds with a special emphasis on personification.  Humor thrives in this subject about school.   Rhyme, onomatopoeia, assonance, similes, and metaphors are also other elements that are visible.  Much of the rhyme is found in ending words at the end of phrases.  The humor and familiarity with each poem presents imaginative ideas. 

Appeal:  Retaining the attention and appeal to young people is a “slam dunk!”  Kids will definitely be able to relate with the poetry because they will have personally experienced it or know of a classmate that has been in such a situation.  As each poem parallels some kind of living animal, students will either be more intrigued to learn more about that animal or will be able to confirm an animal fact or characteristic that they already knew.  The language is easy to understand and does a great job expanding the vocabulary for words that are similar in meaning to already familiar words.  The illustrations help to spur the reader’s imagination towards the animal each poem is spoken about in regard to school.  Salerno used brushes and gouache on hot press watercolor paper with digital enhancements to create the vibrant illustrations throughout this book.

Overall Quality:  The poems have definitely been written with kids in mind.  They are all connected to the experiences and memories that happen in a school environment.  Line breaks are apparent in every poem and various words are written in all capital letters or italics to bring forth emphasis.  Each poem has been strategically placed around the illustrations provided by Salerno and help to bring instant gratification and understanding to its interpretation.  Having personally enjoyed reading this book, I would be inclined to read more poems by Salas. 

The Poets:  Laura Purdie Salas is the only poet represented in this book.  She has written this recent anthology to celebrate some of the less serious instances that seem to repeatedly happen in a school.  She has written many books, and has been published in magazines, anthologies, testing materials, and at an art exhibit for a good cause.  She has her own website at : http://www.laurasalas.com/index.html

Layout:  The poems will strike a chord with anyone that has experienced being in an American school environment, whether young or just young at heart.  The poems celebrate the “wilder” side of school, which compares the students being spoken of in each poem to other living things such as bees, mice, hogs, cardinals, and skunks.  Background information for poems is not included nor is it necessary. There are a total of 18 poems included; some are one-page spreads and others are double-paged spreads making the book 32 pages in length.  There is not a table of contents, or index of any kind.  All of the poems are written in the same 18-point font, New Caledonia.

Spotlight Poem:  Before sharing “Tomorrow Is Picture Day?” I would ask students to think about how they have changed from the time they were born to being five years old?  I would then pose how they have changed from when they were five to now being 12?  Lastly, I would ask if we could look into the future and base how we think a twelve year old would look after 10 more years of life.

After reading the poem, the teacher could share a book or video on the life cycle of humans.  This would be a great way to introduce and teach the word, puberty, as a pre-teen health lesson.  Ultimately going back to the poem read earlier and seeing if students can find any correlation between a caterpillar and butterfly to themselves would help to wrap this uncomfortable topic for many into a more abstract and less embarrassing way.

“Tomorrow Is Picture Day?” by Laura Purdie Salas

I’m missing three teeth, there’s a scratch by my eye.

I trimmed my own bangs---and I cut way to high.

My dad says a butterfly’s blooming in me,

but a hideous caterpillar’s all that I see.

AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: a Celebration of Poetry With a Beat. Edited by Nikki Giovanni. Naperville, Il: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2008. ISBN:  978-1-402-21048-8

Illustrations:

Cover illustration by Damian Ward

Internal illustrations by Kristen Falouch, Michele Noiset, Jeremy Tugeau, Alicia Vergel de Dios, and Damian Ward

Poetic Elements:  Clever wordplay and puns bring immediate attention to the poems in this collection.  The distinctive language that is spoken in the book resembles the dialect of African American Vernacular English.  Rhyme is in constant motion with the repetition of the same words and phrases and with words that end in the same sounds.  Each poem has a definite cadence that moves the reader along and in some cases aides in memorization.

Appeal:  The poetic type and size vary throughout the book.  The illustrations are somewhat contemporary and abstractly done by all of the illustrators. Depending upon the reader, will depend upon whether childhood experiences seem familiar.  Those most interested in learning about Black History and the African American culture will take delight in reading this anthology.  The poems are filled with teachable moments and will help children to gain greater insights about others.  The broken English language that is used in many of the poems will intrigue many a reader who try and speak the beat or lingo in the way it was intended to be read.  Depending on how engrossed the reader gets and understands what is being read, will decide the emotional effect. 

Overall Quality: The poems are definitely appropriate for young people to read and hear.  The younger the person, the less comprehension will occur because many of the poems reference things of the past that may have not been taught to them yet.  The poems that were chosen for this anthology were picked because of the beat and rhythm that are felt when being read.  They all represent insight into the lives of African-Americans.  Each poem is distinctively placed on the pages and features spacing, line breaks, and poem formatting that is unique to itself.  I would dare to say that this book has no poem configured in the same way.  The illustrations are appropriate and display a nice variety in helping depict meaning.  Each of the five illustrators has added their own unique touch to the pages.  Reading so many poems by so many different poets was a little overwhelming for me personally.  If a poet had several poems published in the book, they were all scattered in relation to each other, which didn’t give me consistent chance to feel that poet’s writing. 

The Poets:  This anthology includes 51 poems written by 42 different poets; some with familiar names and others less familiar.  Some of the more familiar authors include: Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, Nikki Grimes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Walter Dean Myers, Martin Luther King, Jr., Kanye West, Queen Latifah and many more.  Some of the poets unknown to me include: Jacqueline Woodson, Tupac Shakur, Ruth Forman, Lauryn Hill, and Ja Jahannes.  All of the poems that have been compiled together in this book have been published in other poetry books by the various authors.

Layout:  The book begins with a Table of Contents and Introduction written by the editor Nikki Giovanni.  Nikki’s introduction explains that there is no right or wrong way to use the book.  Reading it page by page or skipping around, quietly reading, singing them, or performing them aloud; as long as you’re feeling the beat, it’s all good!  The information included in the back of the book shares information about the illustrators, poets and other contributors of the book.  The book concludes with an index that has a mixed listing of poetry titles and poets in alphabetical order with the page number listed for poems and multiple page listings for the poets who have made multiple contributions to the poetry in the book.  In addition to the book, an audio CD is included.  30 of the poems are performed in various ways by the author or by another well-known artist.  The book shares a wide range of styles, eras, and poets that are all familiar with the journey that African-Americans have experienced through the years of being enslaved, slavery being abolished, and then discovering freedom.  Each poet writes in their own style and mode and expresses their own interpretation with how African Americans have helped shape America.  Some of the poems are serious, while others are light hearted and plain goofy. 

Spotlight Poem:  I would begin immediately by reading “Allow Me to Introduce Myself.” I would then ask students if any of them could explain what a biography is.  I would also ask what the word fiction meant.  After establishing that a biography is a true story written about someone else, and that fiction is a made-up story, I would share the book Salt in His Shoes by Deloris Jordan and Roslyn Jordan.

Afterwards we would debate if the book was a biography or a fiction story until coming to the truth that Michael Jordan did not become such a great basketball star because he was told to put salt in his shoes.  It was his determination and commitment to be the best he could be that got him to where he is today.  His growth was not stunted in real life, but an actual help in spurring his talent along.

“Allow Me to Introduce Myself” by Charles R. Smith Jr.

They call me

the show stopper

the dime dropper

the spin-move-to-the-left

reverse jam poppa.

The high flier

on the high wire.

The intense rim-rattlin’

noise

amplifier.

The net-shaker

back board break

creator

Of the funk dunk

hip-shaker.

The Man

Sir Slam

The Legend

I be.

That’s just

a few of the names

they call me.