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
Joanna, I really enjoyed reading your blog because we share the same feelings about poetry. I, too, love poetry and feel it to be a great big part of my life.
ReplyDeleteI have been fortunate enough to find great poetry books and would love to share them with you! Unfortunately, there are some poetry that is not appropriate for children and all we can do as educators is try to be fair and explain them as they come across the hands of our students.
I have so many poems that I love and cannot choose a favorite one....but, I do have a greater love for "older" poetry such as: Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Robert Frost, t.s. elliot, etc...I guess because I was inspired by one and continued down that path. Infact, I think I fell in love with the use of the language--that had a greater affect on me.
I will definitely add Pocket Poems to my poetry library despite the "bad" poem. Short limmerick poems are great for carrying around in your pocket! Thank you so much for sharing your book with us and I look forward to reading it along with my own children.