Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary (Julie Larios)

Title:  Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary

Author: Julie Larios

Illustrator:  Julie Paschkis

Target Ages:  2-7

Genre:  Picture Book Poetry Collection

Publisher Summary: 

Have you ever seen a yellow elephant, glowing in the jungle sun?

Have you seen a green frog—splash!—turn blue?

Or a red donkey throw a red-hot tantrum?

In this bright bestiary, poet Julie Larios and painter Julie Paschkis color a menagerie of animals in brilliantly unexpected hues—encouraging us to see the familiar in surprising ways. 

Poem Sample:

“Brown Mouse”

Little brown clown,

looking for crumbs,

comes sneaking, sniffing, skittering

all around—sounds

like she jitterbugging

on tinfoil, sharp toenails

clicking and clacking

through the house.

She’s in a hurry

that’s for sure,

this brown mouse.

Evaluation:

This collection of 14 colorful poems are sure to surprise and delight young children.  The lyrical words capture the real and wonder of the animals while the vibrant pictures illustrate the fantastic and unexpected.  

Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary is a wonderful poetic experience.  I recommend it  for preschool and primary classrooms. 

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

• Colors:  Practice or review colors and color words. 
• Poetry:  Using a favorite color and animals, children can write their own creative sentence or short poem.
• Sound Devices:  Identify and discuss sound devices like rhyme and alliteration.
• Grouping:  Discuss ways to put the animals in groups like ones the students have seen in real life or touched.  Other groups can be based on type of animal (reptile, mammal, etc.) or where it lives (trees, water, house). 
• Art:  Create one or more animals using unexpected colors, patterns, or textures.
• Fantasy vs. Reality:  Use the pictures as a spring board to discuss the difference between fantasy and reality.  Which parts are realistic?  Which are imaginative?  For older students, ask them to guess why the illustrator used some of the imaginative elements. 

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Also visit Suzanne Leonard Hill's Perfect Picture Book Round Up.  

Thunder Underground (Jane Yolen)

Title:  Thunder Underground

Author:  Jane Yolen

Illustrator:   Josee Masse

Target Ages:  5-10

Genre:  Poetry

Publisher Summary: 

What is under your feet?

Ant cities

Fox dens

Rabbit warrens

Now dig deeper.

Subways

Forgotten towns

Fossilized bones

What other secrets hide deeper still beneath your shoes?

Favorite Poem:

“Corny Conversations”

It sounds too odd

for us to hear,

corn plants can talk,

not mouth to ear.

But with a strange

and clicking sound,

their taproots speak

beneath the ground.

We don’t know what

corn rootlings say

when they communicate

this way.

But scientific studies

show

they do this as they

grow and grow

and grow.

Evaluation:

I am drawn to poetry that brings out the wonder of the world, utilizes imaginative language, and teaches a little science at the same time.  It makes me wish I was still an elementary teacher.  Poetry brings out the spectacle and awe of the world that science textbooks sorely lack.

Thunder Underground can be used along with several science units to start a lesson or to prompt writing across the curriculum:

• Insects
• Plants
• Paleontology/Dinosaurs
• Volcanoes
• Earthquakes
• Archeology
• Geology

Yolen uses a variety of poetry styles from haiku to free verse.  Each one brings out a new angle about the hidden world below from the natural to the man-made (subway, basement).  Some of the information is common knowledge for adults, but not necessarily so for children.  Other fascinating facts will surprise many like plants communicating with each other and the sound of beetles walking underground. 

I love Josee Masse’s illustrations.  Each page turn offers a sweeping look at the world—both above and below the surface—with deep colors and stunning depictions. Two inquisitive children (a boy and a girl) are often pictured observing and inquiring. 

Poetry and science collide to make a wondrous experience in Thunder Underground.  It is a must have for an elementary school classroom or home collection.  These poems are sure to encourage children to think about the many unseen and unknown aspects of the world. 

For more great poems and poetry book selections, visit this week's Poetry Friday.

Cricket in the Thicket: Poems about Bugs (Carol Murray)

Title:  Cricket in the Thicket: Poems about Bugs

Author: Carol Murray

Illustrator:  Melissa Sweet

Target Ages:  5-10

Genre:  Non-Fiction Poetry

Publisher Summary: 

Playful poems highlight surprising facts about the world of insects—from familiar ants to exotic dragonflies to cringe worthy ticks and magnificent fireflies.  

Sample Poems:

“Trees and Knees and Bumblebees”

Rumble, rumble,

Bumblebee.

Don’t you know

you’re bugging me?

Your buzzing

in the climbing tree

may make me tumble,

Bumblebee.

Stop that rumble,

Bumblebee.

Perhaps I’ll stumble

as I flee.

I’ll crash and crumble,

skin my knee,

and then I’ll grumble,

Bumblebee.

“Praying or Preying?”

Pray tell us, Mr. Mantis,

do you prey or simply pray?

Do you scout about for victims

or fold your hands all day?

You look a little scary,

but appearances deceive.

So, tell us, Mr. Mantis,

what should we believe?

“Fruit Fly Fantasy”

They seem to arise

from bananas and pears,

then capture the table

and circle the chairs. 

Oh, where do they come from

and where do they go? 

They stage an invasion

and vanish like snow.

Evaluation:

Cricket in the Thicket is an entertaining and informative collection of poems.  

Poems are written from a child-like perspective, using vocabulary and sound words they will enjoy.  The poems have a smooth rhythm and flow.  Often a whimsical approach is taken when describing the insects, such as the idea of hugging a ladybug or a cricket being an alarm. 

Sweet’s signature style collage and mixed media are amazing, as always. She brings in interesting items like a tape measure for the inchworm page and a magnifying glass for the mites.  Her bright blues, reds, and greens contrast nicely with neutral colors.  On every page, the insects are the stars.

The poems are not heavy in facts, though some of the insects’ habits and characteristics are highlighted.  However, each page has a box with insect facts.  Some of the information I knew, but it will likely be new to children.  However, there are facts that were new to me like daddy long legs spiders are more like a mite than a spider; grasshoppers spit out a brown liquid when they are afraid, and inch worms are moth larvae.  (I probably should have known the last one.) There is additional information in the author’s (cricket) notes. 

The tie ins to science and language arts as well as the engaging way the poems are formed make Cricket in the Thicket an excellent addition to a classroom or home library. 

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

• Science:  This book connects well to a study of insects.  Incorporate the poems into an insect unit or use the book as a springboard to learn more about insect.  
• Sound devices:  Connect with a lesson on rhyme or alliteration.  “June Bugs Whoosh” and “Green Grasshopper” are perfect for alliteration  “Just Jumping Spider” and “Go, Ants, Go” are for rhyme.
• Writing:  Study and/or observe an insect.  Then write a poem about it. 
• Social Studies:  Discuss what quality or qualities makes each bug special.  Connect that idea to how each person has his/her own special qualities that make him/her special.
• Comparison:  Identify ways these insects and others are similar, such as based on body type, legs, wings, color, and other characteristics. 
• Art:  With Melissa Sweet’s illustrations as inspiration, create insect collages. 

Visit The Poem Farm for more Poetry Friday selections.

Echo Echo (Marilyn Singer)

Title:  Echo Echo: Reverso Poems about Greek Myths               

Author:  Marilyn Singer

Illustrator:  Josee Masse

Target Ages:  6 and up

Genre:  Poetry Collection

Publisher Summary:

There are two sides to every story—especially the Greek myths.  From Perseus and Medusa to Arachne and Athena, gods and mortals rarely see eye-to-eye.

In this third collection of ingenious reverso poems, Marilyn Singer brings classic myths to new and vivid life.  When read from topic to bottom, each poem tells a well-known story from a world of heroes and monsters.  When read in reverse, however, the very same words convey a whole new point of view!

Sample Poems (Click on Picture for a Larger View):

Evaluation:

I am a fan of the first two reverso poetry collections by Singer.  I also love ancient Greek history and mythology.  This book appealed to my many loves! 

The poems are fantastic.  The illustrations are a stunning wonder.  I love the rich golds and blues with splashes of red and green.  Each picture captures multiple perspectives. 

Echo Echo is an engaging and memorable read. 

Activities and Extension Ideas for Lesson Plans:

• Literature:  Add these poems to a study of Greek myths or use them as a springboard to read some myths. 
• Point of View:  Discuss how there can be different points of view to the same event.  Make observations about the characters—their perspectives, background, motivations, and such. 
• Grammar:  Study how punctuation (and even word placement in relation to poetry) changes the meaning of a text. 
• Poetry:  Try to write a reverso for a Greek (or other cultural) myth not already covered in the book.
• History:  Read about ancient Greece and the Greek gods for a better understanding of the context of these poems.
• Origin Stories: Distinguish the stories that give an origin of something (spiders, seasons, daffodil flowers, evil in the world).  Teach about how the Greeks and other ancient people made up stories to understand what was incompressible at the time.  
• Writing:  Write (or draw a picture and tell orally) an origin story for something in nature or happens naturally.
• Visual Texts:  Study the illustrations.  Evaluate how they convey the different perspectives.
• Connections: With such so many concise mythological retellings, it would be easy to look for connections and patterns. For instance, identify common motifs like pride, heroism, family, love, courage, and so forth.  Group character types--heroes and villains, gods and mortals--and character qualities--prideful, competitive, brave, sacrificial, selfish,and such.

Literary Connections:
Pandora
Arachne and Athena
King Midas
Perseus and Medusa
Bellerophon and Pegasus
Narcissus and Echo
Pygmalion and Galatea
Theseus and Ariadne
Icarus and Daedalus
Melanion and Atalanta
Demeter and Persephone
Eurydice and Orpheus

Historical Connections:
Ancient Greece

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Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets (by Kwame Alexander)

Title: Out of Wonder:  Poems Celebrating Poets

Author: Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth

Illustrator:  Ekua Holmes

Target Ages:  8 and up

Genre: Poetry Anthology

Publisher Summary:  Out of gratitude for the poet’s art form, Newbery Award–winning author and poet Kwame Alexander, along with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, present original poems that pay homage to twenty famed poets who have made the authors’ hearts sing and their minds wonder. 

Favorite Poem:

“Majestic”

Celebrating Maya Angelou

Rise

into the wonder

of daybreak.

Be a rainbow in the cloud.

Be a free bird on the back of the night wind.

Shine on, honey!

Walk with joy in your golden feet

over crystal seas

and purpled mountains.

Know your beauty

is a thunder

your precious heart unsalable.

Be brave,

Like a new seed bursting

with extraordinary promise.

Shine on, honey!

Know you

are phenomenal.

            --Kwame Alexander

Evaluation: 

Out of Wonder:  Poems Celebrating Poets is an eclectic collection of poems ranging in style and theme.  Spanning the world and history, a variety of voices and poetic styles are included.

Part I celebrates the poetic style of writers like e.e. Cummings, Basho’, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost.  For instance, Basho’ wrote Haikus.  “Contemporary Haiku,” a celebration of his poetry, is written in Haiku stanzas.  Langston Hughes is known for his rhythm and rhyming couplets.  “Jazz Jive Jam” is composed to mimic those features.

In the next section, Part II, the poems incorporate the feelings and themes of the poets.  Pablo Neruda’s poems focus on the natural world.  The poem dedicated to him, “The Music of the Earth,” contains beautiful lines like “where my words linger and accumulate like rocks blurring in the cold rain.”  Similarly, Judith Wright work is concerned with nature as well as Aboriginal land rights.  “Tambourine Things” pays homage to these motifs with phrases, such as “Remember that the shadows once belonged to the elders” and “Hold the relic to your ear; listen to the ancient silence.”   

Finally, Part III shares “with the world—in words—how awesome [the authors] feel about the poet and the poem.”  Many favorites are celebrated here—Gwendolyn Brooks, Sandra Cisneros, Rumi, Maya Angelou, and more. 
 

Ekua Holmes’ vibrant illustrations add to the splendor and allure of each poem.  The colors are rich and bold.  Her mixed media layered collages bound off the page, complimenting and extending the motifs and meaning of the poems.

The book ends with biographical information for each featured poet.  It includes basics on their inspiration, motifs, and style.  Clearly, this book is a must-have for teachers.  The format and poems encourage imaginative exploration of the authors and poetry, making it ideal for poetry units or creative writing. 

I highly recommend Out of Wonder:  Poems Celebrating Poets.

Activities and Extension Ideas:

Candlewick Press Teacher’s Guide

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