Poetry in Motion: Just Put it in Your Pocket!

  

 

Title:  Pocket Poems

Selected By:  Bobbi Katz  

Illustrator:  Marylin Hafner

ISBN:  0525471723

Publisher:  Dotton Children's Books

Genre:  Poetry

Guided Reading Level: Varies; Youth

I enjoy reading poetry with children.  Last year my second grade class and I put together an anthology of poems all about water.  We had a blast!  I was not aware of how much fun poetry could be in the classroom until I met a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Campbell.  I was working with Mrs. Campbell as a teaching scholar in a first grade classroom.  Mrs. Campbell had a way of teaching literacy that made reading and writing seem more fun than going on a field trip!  Every morning Mrs. Campbell would introduce the class to a new poem.  I learned how precious poetry is in the classroom that year and ever since I have been collecting poetry that I would like to use in my own classroom.  Unfortunately, I also learned that finding great poems can be hard at times.  I found that a book of poetry may contain a few great poems, but then there are also some poems that I would never use in the classroom.  The same is true for Pocket Poems, an anthology of poems selected by Bobbi Katz.  Inside the pages of this collection I found my favorite poem, “Dragon Smoke”, by Lilian Moore.  The poem is short, but fabulous.  On the first cold day of winter, when the air is so cold you can see the vapor form with every breath, read this poem with your class.  When you are finished reading the poem you will have every child in the class running out to, “Breath dragon smoke” that day.  How wonderful it is to see poetry effect children so! 

Within the same pages of this collection you will find a poem titled, “That’s The Way to Do It”: this poem is a take on “The little old woman that lived in a shoe”, but ends with the woman getting advice from a friend that tells the woman to ‘fry’ her children with ‘onions’ “and eat them for lunch!”.  Poetry is supposed to feed the readers senses not frighten them.  I remember growing up with rhymes about babies falling from a tree top or a farmers’ wife butchering some mice, but I find it hard to believe that in today's books I would find poems as vulgar as those that originated so long ago.         

I may dislike some of the poems in this book, but it would have been foolish of me to toss this book to the side after reading one bad poem.  In fact, I would recommend this anthology to someone looking for short and cute poems for beginning readers.  The book opens with a wonderful poem that would be great to start ‘poetry in your pocket week’ with because it is about how much fun it is to carry a poem in your pocket.  In conclusion, when it comes to finding fun and wonderful poems one must search hard and long.  There will be many poems that may make one wonder why they ever started looking, but in the end the benefits of having one’s own collection of useful poems for his/her classroom is priceless and one hundred percent worth it!  I am still searching for poems to fatten my binder with, and I hope you will start one too!

P.S.  I love the following poem!  Since my blog is about some of my favorite things I decided to add it to this entry so that you can share in one of my favorite poems, enjoy!

Dragon Smoke    

Breathe and blow

white clouds

            with every puff.

It’s cold today,

             cold enough

to see your breath.

Huff!

      Breathe dragon smoke

                Today!

Lilian Moore           

 

Many Cultures... Much in Common!

Title:  Whoever You Are

Author:  Mem Fox

Illustrator:  Leslie Staub

ISBN:  0152007873

Publisher:  Voyager Books

Genre:  Multicultural Picture Book

Guided Reading Level:  H

* I may have many favorites, but this is my absolute favorite!  In my heart, I have always believed that people are no different from me.  Our experiences might be different, but our emotions are not!  Even if we handle our emotions differently; pain is pain and happiness is happiness.  I am glad that Mem Fox has put this to print so that we can recognize the importance of our differences and the closeness of our similarities.     

A great multicultural picture book should rejoice in both the similarities as well as the differences of many cultures.  Being that New York is considered as the great melting pot of the world and there are so many ethnicities that formed our very own local culture I have had the privilege in learning about many different cultures through friends and family.  My family has grown in size quite a bit over the years as my siblings began to get married and start families of their own.  As we grew in size we grew in languages adding Hebrew, Spanish, and Creole.  I began to experience different traditions, superstitions, beliefs and (my favorite part) food.  Unfortunately, I have also experienced the ignorance that some people have towards people that are different from them.  When I first read Whoever You Are, by Mem Fox I fell in love!  Mem fox takes you around the world to look at people of different color, language and tradition.  Then she explains that the emotions of people are no different from one person to the next in order to show how similar people are regardless of their differences.  There are bad people in the world, but it is not their color that makes them bad it is their lack of care for others that allows them to do bad things.       

Mem Fox was inspired to write Whoever You Are after reading about the actions of an eighteen year old girl during wartime in Bosnia.  The girl turned against a boy that she had recently been in school with.  Mem Fox felt that the girl never should have seen the boy as an enemy, but rather as a friend who was the same as her.  Mem Fox also used rhyme, rhythm and repetition in her writing which helps children to read this wonderful story on their own.  This book is great for lesson’s on compare and contrast which can help children to further comprehend the meaningfulness of the story.  The illustrations are warm, colorful and inviting to readers.  The illustrator, Leslie Staub, draws the narrator travelling from place to place throughout the story.  Children will find it fun to point out the whereabouts of the narrator in each illustration.  Teachers can ask the class to find the narrator in the illustrations which will help further hold the student’s attention.  Most of all, the children will learn that the world is one which we all share so we should learn to understand one another and treat each other with respect.  This story brings me back to the old saying, “One should treat others as they would like to be treated” which can be a hard concept for young children since they are still developing their social skills.  This book helps children learn to consider others’ feelings by relating the emotions of others to their own.  It seems that children are not the only one's that could learn from this story, but at least we can teach them to learn from our mistakes.                           

A Lovely Twist on an Old Tale

Title:  Stone Soup

Author and Illustrator:  Jon J. Muth

ISBN: 043933909X

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Genre:  Folk Tale

Guided Reading Level: M

* Stone Soup, by Jon J. Muth is one of my newest additions to my growing list of favorites!

 

While looking for a quality children’s picture book for this week’s blog I remembered a story that I was told to read called Stone Soup.  I decided to search for Stone Soup and found many versions of the story by different authors.  I stumbled across Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth and I knew I had found my book!  Jon J. Muth retell’s and illustrates the old folk tale in such a unique and humble way that I fell in love with this story.  Muth sets the story in China and incorporates Chinese culture into the story through his art, symbols as well as elements from other Chinese folklore.  The characters Hok, Lok and Siew are familiar characters in Chinese folklore known for being deities that represent health, wealth, and prosperity.  In this story, Hok, Lok and Siew are monks who come across a village filled with villagers that had lost their sense of community and trust due to famine, flooding and war which fell upon them.  The three monk’s trick the villagers into helping them prepare stone soup in order to help the villagers remember how important community and the love and joy one feels when he/she shares in being a part of something bigger really is.  The traditional European version shows three hungry travelers that trick a village into giving them ingredients to make soup in order to cure their hunger.  Muth turned this old tale into a selfless and compassionate tale of human kindness and need for relationships/friendships. 

Muth’s artwork is brilliant!  The story begins with Hok, Lok and Siew walking in almost all white through a snow covered trail that hides the Great Wall of China and near completely camouflages the three monks.  The village is painted with bland colors until we see a vibrant red tree that helps the viewers’ eye to find a young onlooker wearing a bright yellow coat.  Once we meet the young child the colors grow stronger from page to page as the courtyard fills with more and more people.  It is as if color is added to the pages as life comes back to the community.

This story is great for teaching multiculturalism in the classroom, comparative studies on folklore, and teaching the importance of community and sharing.  I enjoyed meeting tricksters who wanted to do good for others and not for personal gain.  I felt the mood change as the villagers became more open and trusting.  I was not expecting to find this book, but I am sure glad I did!  Stone Soup, by Jon J. Muth has been added to my growing list of favorites and I implore you to pick up a copy and let the story work its’ way into your heart too!