Social Studies Poetry:

Stockland, Patricia M. The Free and the Brave: a Collection of Poems about the United States. Illus. Sara Rojo Perez. Minneapolis: Compass Point, 2004. Print. ISBN 9780756505639.

Stockland creates an anthology of poems about the United States with "Toolbox tips," which helps the reader understand the poetry and how it is written. The selected poem, which illustrates the collection’s patriotic theme throughout the collection, is selected from diverse authors including Carl Sandburg, Jean Little, Langston Hughes, Ogden Nash, and Janet Wong.

The toolbox is a major focus in the book. Each poem explanation of a related poetic form or concept, found throughout the book on the bottom of the pages, such as acrostic, meter, voice, onomatopoeia, or limerick. Each poems concept is effectively and clearly illustrated. The poems use free verse, limericks, alliteration and metaphors, repetition, rhyme, sensory imagery, voice, and meter. The Table of Content focuses on the “Toolbox” features, listing the poetry as “Poems” which cover pages six to twenty-five. The index on the last page of the book lists the nineteen poems in alphabetical order with the author and page number. The poems are arranged in the book based on poetic elements. A glossary of poetic terms is found in the back of the book as well as web and library resources. “Collect Your Tools” is a continued analyzation of specific use of tools in the poems found in this collection and encouragement to post poetry on the web. The diversity of the poems is reflected in the varied topic addresses. Many emotions are found in the collections, fun and reflective, such as “City Blockades,” and depressing or even embarrassing for children, such as “Poor.”

Rojo Perez, the illustrator creates brightly colored cartoon like illustrations for each poem which peak the reader’s curiosity and encourages reading the poem. The facial features are simple and interesting. Her illustrations frame and separate the poetry while making some of the poems more child friendly by lightening the content’s severity, such as “Aunt Sue’s Story.”

This is a wonderful book for teaching the poetic concepts and encourages the use of specific elements in writing poetry. The focus is primarily on the concepts and not the poem collection. To direct the focus on the theme – patriotism of the United States the poems can be read without referencing the “Tool Tips.”

Poem for Library Lesson:

“When I Grow Up”
I want to be an artist, Grandpa-
Write and paint, dance and sing.

Be accountant,
Be lawyer,
Make good living,
Buy good food.
Back in China,
In the old days,
Everybody
So, so poor.
Eat one chicken,
Work all year.

Grandpa, things are different
here.

-Janet S. Wong

Activity:

Read the poem out loud. Define voice and tell more than one voice can be in a poem. Show examples using another poem. Ask how many voices are in Wong’s poem. Discuss the message(s) Wong conveys in the poem. Specifically discuss Wong’s desires and goals according to the poem and desires and goals others have for her. Have students list hopes and goals for themselves and hopes and goals other have for them. Using that list, the students write a poem titled, “When I Grow Up.” They may include more than one voice in their poem if desired. When the student is finished with the poem they create an illustration that features their desire when they grow up.

Science Poetry:

Scieszka, Jon. Science Verse. Illus. Lane Smith. New York: Viking, 2004. Print. ISBN 0670910570.

The theme of this entertaining and funny collection by Scieszka and Smith is scientific topics such as dinosaurs, atoms, plants, food chains, evolution, water cycle, anatomy, astronomy, black holes, food additives, light, worms, parasites, fire, bedbugs, scientific method, electricity, virus, atoms, states of matter, senses, amoeba, metamorphosis, expanding universe and the solar system. The collection opens as Mr. Newton, the science teacher talks about “the poetry of science” and student is “zapped” by the teacher with a “curse of science verse.” The collection shares the poetry of science and the student hears in everything in rhyme and meter as science is factually presented. Emotions and sensory appeals are found throughout the poems as the student’s point of view is reflected-bored by dinosaurs, grossed by the body, wanting the right answer in lieu of understanding. The collection contains parodies of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe , “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer, “The Star” by Ann and Jane Taylor, “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll, “Mary’s Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale, “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, “The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost in addition to songs and nursery rhymes ("I'm a Little Teapot" and "Eenie, meanie, mynie, mo."). The last page, “Observations and Conclusions” lists the famous works that provided the basis for the parodies.

The C.D. is a helpful teaching tool allowing the meter and rhymes to be easily heard. Science Verse poetry does not all follow the traditional end couplet rhyme scheme. There is no Table of Contents. The poetry is arranged in a pattern beginning with evolution, water cycle then a several parodies. The pattern repeats and the science concepts build.


The illustrator, Lane Smith, compliments the poems with humorous details and the face of the student in each entertaining illustration using paintings, drawings, or collages while focusing on texture. The poem titles are in beige color while the poem is in coral on a solid background allowing focus on the poem and each accompanying illustration. The inside of the front and back covers contain the element chart.

Science Verse has been awarded The Parent’s Choice Award Gold 2004 Non-Fiction and The ALA Notable Children’s Book Award 2005.

The poems are effective and fun science learning tools that have a wide audience appeal due to appeal, entertainment, humor, and attractiveness. This is the key to turn a boring science lesson into a fun experience, quickly.


Poem for Library Lesson:

"Food Chain"

I’ve been working in the food chain,
All the livelong day.
In the middle of the food chain,
I’ve got no time to play.

Can‘t you see the green plants growing?
That’s energy, okay?
Consumer eats up the producer,
Predator eats prey.

Who’s for lunch today?
Who’s for lunch today?
Don’t you just wonder, who’s for lunch today?
Predator or prey.
Predator or prey.
Eat or be eaten, that’s the only way.

Activity:

Read the poem out loud to the class and discuss from what this poem is a parody. Review a food chain then discuss the words and phrases that were chosen for the poem. Look at the illustrations of the three food chains and discuss the animals and their role(s) in the food chain. Use the vocabulary found in the poem in the discussions, producer predator, prey, consumer, and energy. Each student creates their own food chain using a provided triangular template allowing for three levels. The students may reference the illustrated food chain but must use different items. After completing their food chain the student creates a complimentary poem to accompany their illustration. Students may volunteer to share their completed work.

Biographical Poetry:

Bernier-Grand, Carmen T. Frida: Viva La Vida = Long Live Life. Illus. Frieda Kahlo. New York: Marshall Cavendish Children/Marshall Cavendish, 2007. Print. ISBN 9780761453369.

Bernier-Grand writes twenty-six sensory image filled free verse biographical poems of Frida Kahlo. The illustrations are paintings by Kahlo, a twentieth century painter. The poems and illustrations express the sorrows, strengths, passions and joys of Kahlo’s life including two marriages to Diego Rivera, a life crippling bus accident, living in Manhattan (which she didn’t like because of surrounding poverty), her sister having an affair with Diego, her affair, three miscarriages, divorce, anticipation of her death, repeated physical pain, making headlines with her paintings, but through all of the emotional exhaustion her motto is “¡Viva la vida! Long live life!” The poems are in first person, conveying intimacy and an impression of the period of the event conveyed in the poem in lieu of a comprehensive outlook on Kahlo’s life. Allusion to the Gettysburg Address is present in “¡EXTRA!” “Frida Kahlo wore/ . . . a rebozo created by the people/ for the people/ who belong to the people.”


The book contains a Table of Contents that reflects the poems being arranged in the order of Kahlo’s life. In the back of the book is an assortment of documentation that authenticates, such as up lifting quotes “From the Letters and Diary of Frieda Kahlo,” a brief biography, a chronology, a glossary translating Spanish terminology used in the poems, sources, note, and acknowledgments. The political climate could benefit from an explanation in the back book notes to help readers which might be unfamiliar with this period in history. The color photo illustrations of Kahlo’s paintings have a title, date, detailed interpretations of symbolism providing additional biographical information and support the juxtaposition. The faces of the illustrations reflect emotion and physical pain. Some poems have an accompanying illustration. Twice in the book are several illustrations without accompanying poetry. The design is simplistic with an abundance of white space but this book is not for elementary children but adolescents in 7th or 8th grades in middle school or high school, due to the subject matter.

In this emotionally draining work which received Pura Belpré honors and is a Booklist Best Ten Biography, Bernier-Grand conveys Kahlo’s inspiring journey through her difficult life of emotional and physical pain and her continued thirst for life and her celebration for life even on her death bed. Bernier-Grand’s poetic verse does Kahlo’s paintings justice allowing the poetry and illustrations to reflect Kahlo’s ultimate optimism and giving the reader an emotional and biographical connection to her.


Poem for Library Lesson:

“Self Portrait With Cropped Hair”
Fraida Kahlo, a divorced woman-
I move
My parrots, hairless dogs,
Deer, spider monkeys and toys
To the U-shaped house of my childhood.
I paint the outside deep blue
To keep evil spirits away.
Instead of my family’s Persian rugs, I have petates.
Instead of the French sofa, Mexican chairs.

Why did Diego ask me for a divorce?
Was he having another affair?
Or did he learn about mine?

Men are kings. They direct the world.

I put on Diego’s suit
(it smells like him).
I sit in a Mexican yellow chair
And chop off my hair-
The hair he adored.
I look like a man,
But I leave my earrings on.


Activity:

High school students. Read the brief biography found at the back of the book then several selected poems with illustrations out loud and while projecting the accompanying illustration. Lead a discussion of poetry, paintings and significant aspects (bus accident, miscarriages, marriages, and her health) of Kahlo’s life. Focus the discussion on symbolism and repeated motifs found, such as colors, animals, and children. Guide the students in determining what they think the symbols and motifs used in her painting represent. Have the students make a list of three to five significant events, people, and feelings in their life and determine symbols to use to represent them. As they think about their own lives project more of Kahlo’s illustrations paintings found in the book. The students create a self-portrait using symbolism. After completion the students share their chosen symbolism and compare and contact their symbolism to Kahlo’s. Conclude the activity leading an over arching discussion of the students' and Kahlo’s work.

Free Verse Poetry:

Worth, Valerie. All the small poems and fourteen more. Illus. Natalie Babbitt. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994. Print. ISBN 9780374302115.

Adding to the Small Poems series the poems appear in the order of the four earlier books: small poems, more small poems, still more small poems, and small poems again with an additional fourteen poems to compose free verse poems in All the small poems and fourteen more, written by Worth. The poems are listed in the Table of Contents in presentation order. The one hundred and thirteen poems are short poems with titles that focus on everyday items and makes them shimmer through the point of view of what a child actually sees or wants to see, such as earthworms, rags, garbage, an amoeba, telephone poles, or a skunk. She compares, observes, and contemplates these ordinary fun and familiar concrete topics as the reader must think to determine a possible underlying abstract message conveyed in each poem, which makes the reader reflect from different points of view. Worth communicates the words and the words visually by making them fit the form and the forms fit the topic of the poems, such as the lawnmower goes back and forth. She also uses sensory imagery to appeal to hearing, taste, smell, touch, and sight, as in “caterpillar” where the reader experiences the feet rippling, pouncing and pattering as the caterpillar walks. The length of lines, repetition, and rhythm variation are used to communicate with the reader as well as figurative language. Occasionally she uses similes and metaphors to increase the height of the poem and to surprise the reader such as in “safety pin” the safety pin is like a shrimp with its “surprised eye.”

Babbitt illustrates each poem with a black ink sketch picture that complements the depth and simplicity reflected in the poem. The illustrations emphasizes Worth’s word choices making them pop to the reader. “tractor” contains consonance and assonance and with a rhyme and finishing with a simile.

This is a wonderful book with beautiful short, simple, and deep poems and illustrations that appeal and sing to the audience – children. The reader should linger through as they read the poems out loud.

Library Lesson:

“chairs”
Chairs
Seem
To
Sit
Down
On
Themselves, almost as if
They were people,
Some fat, some thin;
Settled comfortably
On their own seats,
Some even stretch out their arms
To
Rest.

Activity:

This is one of my favorite poems in this book. What message do you think the poet is telling us in this poem? Allow students to think and respond. To me, “chairs” is a poem that tells about life. There is a wonderful illustration that goes along with the poem too. Show and discuss the illustration that accompanies the poem. How does the illustration support the poem’s message? Allow students to think and respond. To me, the chair is like a person. Worth really makes us think when we read her poems. The poems are short but they have a lot of meaning. She makes our imaginations work! Now use your imagination. I want everyone to write a short poem about a subject – gum. Do what Worth did in her poems – use your comparative, contemplation, and observation skills. Also, illustrate a picture that compliments your work, as Babbit did. To help you observe a piece of gum I have a piece for each of you. You may use all your senses to experience the gum. After class, all gum is disposed of in the trash as they leave. I display everyone’s poem and illustration on the wall under a giant cut out of a piece of gum.

Concrete Poetry:

Sidman, Joyce. Meow Ruff A Story in Concrete Poetry. .Illus. Michelle Berg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. Print. ISBN 9780618448944.

Sidman uses concrete poetry, in the form of word placement and shapes, and onomatopoeia, and many descriptions to create a picture poetry book that tells a story. No Table of Contents or headings are necessary since this is one continuous poem. A dog flees his home and a cat is left on the side of the road. The two meet and becomes friends as they endure a thunderstorm in the park. The plot contains a beginning, middle, and an end with the middle presenting the thunderstorm conflict. The poem is written in a play format where characters have different thoughts and feelings that add to the story figuratively as well as literally, such as the while puffy text of adjectives to represent a cloud:
“A billowing batch
Of cumulus”
Sideman includes surprises in the story, such as the dog jumping in the tree when the cat hisses.

Berg, the illustrator uses typefaces, shapes, and lines to personalize the texts and thoughts of the characters in lieu of bubble voices and thoughts. The story is told through the adjective- filled non-rhyming verses in word-shape landscapes creating much of the illustrations.
This style reflects an appealing warm tone to the audience the animals’ emotions in an arch-shaped line, as shown by the cat:
Back arching – hiss starting – sworn enemy – DOG!
The sensory images are felt, heard, seen, and smelt throughout the story in the thoughts and landscape. The colorful and simple illustrations allow the focus to be on the story as the fonts bring the characters to life.

Sidman and Berg marry concrete poetry, story, and art turning a common occurrence of a dog and cat into a unique and exciting adventure for children. This story is engaging because of the visually unique arrangement of the text that allows the story to stand out.


Library Lesson:


must run run run run

don’t want leash want speed want FREEDOM !


Activity:
After reading the poem and showing the pictures, look at each page and ask what is happening, include the details. A student tells the story of each page. Read what each character says using different voices for each character, if possible. Divide the class into groups allowing for each student in the group to represent the voice of a character in the story. Each group reads the story within their group by character. Stop after the CLOUDBURST and discuss the experiences.

Verse Poetry:

Lewis, J. Patrick. Underwear salesman jobs for better or verse. Illus. Serge Bloch. New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2009. Print. ISBN 9780689853258.

Lewis creates this collection of his verse poetry based on a variety of occupations using haikus, wit, word shapes, rhymes, word play, irony, puns, analogies, and limericks. Much of the word play used will be difficult for children, especially ELL students to understand, such as pixie wig and the toupee, found in the “Pet Groomer’s”. Lewis uses on set rime, alliteration as in “Bird Watcher” and onomatopoeias (Zooooooooooooom), and repetition of words, “clunk-clunk” and “thunk-thunk.” Lewis uses sensory images through his poems through smell, sight, touch, taste, and hearing. Concrete meanings and literal images are found in the poems but some can appear to be abstract to children due to the puns, jokes, (“Pet Groomer,” “Plumber”) and figurative language. A light playful tone and mood is found throughout the collection. The poems are abstract in language choices causing much thought in order to comprehend the message leaving little time to develop emotions regarding the poetry.

The Underwear Salesman jobs for better or verse contains poetic types and forms that are appealing, when read, to children and the poems retains their attention because they are short, light, and have funny and made up words, sounds and rhymes. The title starts the giggling! There will be much explaining for the children to comprehend some of the meaning due to tools the poet uses. Only a few poems should be read in one sitting allowing the students to digest the poem.

There is no Table of Contents or headings to guide the reader to the poems. Each poem is simply titled with the occupation which is addressed in the poem. The book opens with,
“Guess how many jobs there are /At the occupation
salad bar!”
Lewis writes the book “(For children overqualified/For boring jobs).”

Serge Bloch, the illustrator, compliments the poetry with whimsical, simple, and colorful illustrations which are effectively placed around or by the poem. White space is used to focus on Block’s and Lewis’ work.

Library Lesson:

“Sword Shallower”

Two rules sword shallowers follow
That normally follow a swallow:

1. Look up to the ceiling.
2. Ignore your gut feeling.

Activity:

Discuss the importance of rules when there is task to be done. Ask -what is a task the students do that need to be done by following rules? Read the poem. Lead a discussion about why his two rules are important. Discuss the rhymes in the poem. The students write a poem titling it with the job they are doing, such as Soccer Kicker, followed by a poem which contains information telling about the rules and the rules in addition to an illustration showing the rules being followed.