Dirty Laundry Pile:

Poems in Different Voices

Selected by Paul B. Janeczko

Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee Dirty Laundry Pile:Poems in Different Voices, a collection of mask, or persona, poems will make 3rd - 6th grade readers (actually,of any age) giggle and think as they read these imaginative selections. Written in the voices of everyday items such as a washing machine, snowflakes and kites, Paul Janeczko has done a great job of selecting poems that make the reader "think outside the box". Have you ever wondered what the innermost thoughts of a vacuum cleaner might be? Apparently they are not the mild-mannered helpful appliances we thought. They seek revenge for having to perform their duties: I gulp another/pizza crust. A tiresome life --/All work, no play --/ I think I'll swallow you today!

Melissa Sweet's watercolor illustrations, whether thumb-nails or a full two-page spread, will delight the reader but not overwhelm the poems they depict. Janeczko has done a terrific job of selecting poems/poets to include in his anthology. Readers will enjoy the different perspective from various things as well as learning to think of them in different ways. Dirty Laundry Pile is a fun, engaging addition to any collection.

Janeczko, Paul B. 2001. DIRTY LAUNDRY PILE:POEMS IN DIFFERENT VOICES. Ill Melissa Sweet. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

This is a poem from a young boy to his dad. The boy is sad because he has broken his promises to his daddy and is concerned that he can’t be his daddy’s little boy anymore.

Promises

Dear Daddy,
I’m sorry I did not do what you told me to do.
If I do better
Can I still be your little boy?

Dear Son,
You will be
My little boy
For all of your little-boy days.
And when
You are no longer a little boy
I will still be your daddy.

From: IN DADDY’S ARMS I AM TALL African Americans Celebrating Fathers. By David A. Anderson. Ill. by Javaka Steptoe. Published by Lee & Low Books, New York. Copyright 1997.

After reading aloud a couple of times, have 2 volunteers read in the voices of a little boy and his dad. Discuss. As a group, compose a poem from the mom’s perspective to both the boy and his dad. For those who want, let them explore and create a personal or partner poem.

Rainbow Soup
Adventures in Poetry

by Brian P. Cleary, Ill. by Neal Layton

What an ingenious book! RAINBOW SOUP, aimed at 3rd -6th graders, is jammed full of funny rhymes, great word choices and entertaining illustrations. Author Brian Cleary is not only a gifted poet, but he is an amazing teacher, as well. Although it is obviously a book of poetry, it is also a book about poetry. Filled with funny poems in the style of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, Cleary has an explanation at the end of many of his poems informing the reader the type of poem that has just been read and a simple, yet thorough explanation of the form. There is a little bit of everything from couplets and haiku to examples of lesser known types such as villanelle and lantern. Cleary also – without the reader realizing he/she is learning – teaches about iambic pentameter, palindromes, parody and e.e. cummings, etc.

Cleary opens this delightful little collection with “Welcome”: Come romp with me amongst the words./Come play amongst the phrases./Swing and climb from pun to rhyme/And hop through versey mazes./Swim from head to toe-etry. Come beat your drums and shake your bums/And dance the dance of poetry. Included are poems that play not only with words or spoken language but also with the eyes and mind. For example, in an example using symbols and texting as part of the poetry, the reader is treated to “2 LN”:
2 LN, dear sweet LN,
B4 U, now I stand.
2 me U R a QTpie.
Y don’t U take my hand?

The NV of the others
U N I would always B.
I M D perfect 1 4 U-
Just U 8 N C!

Layton’s simple black line drawings with monochromatic coloring applied to the speckled paper add to the sense of whimsy and fun. With “A pinch of puns, a dash of concrete poems, and a dollop of haiku” (front flap), RAINBOW SOUP has all the right ingredients for a delicious serving of poetry for any reader.

Cleary, Brian P. 2004. RAINBOW SOUP ADVENTURES IN POETRY. Ill. Neal Layton. Minneapolis : Carolrhoda Books.

This poem is a great example of poetry with a refrain (but that is not a song). The refrain is "I'm walking with my iguana". This poem evokes some great visual images and is a lot of fun.

I'm Walking Wth My Iguana
by Brian Moses

I’m walking
with my iguana

I’m walking
with my iguana

When the temperature rises
to above eighty-five,
my iguana is looking
like he’s coming alive.

So we make it to the beach,
my iguana and me,
then he sits on my shoulder
as we stroll by the sea. . .

and I’m walking
with my iguana

Well if anyone sees us
we’re a big surprise,
my iguana and me
on our daily exercise,

till somebody phones
the local police
says I’ve got an alligator
tied to a leash.

when I’m walking
with my iguana

I’m walking
with my iguana

It’s the spines on his back
that make him look grim,
but he just loves to be tickled
under his chin.

And I know that my iguana
is ready for bed
when he puts on his pyjamas
and lays down his sleepy head.

And I’m walking
with my iguana

still walking
with my iguana

With my iguana
with my iguana
and my piranha
and my Chihuahua
and my chinchilla,
with my gorilla,
my caterpillar…
and I’m walking…
with my iguana…
with my iguana…
with my iguana…

From: I WISH I COULD DINE WITH A PORCUPINE. By Brian Moses. Published by Hodder Children's Books. Copyright 2004

After reading aloud to students, let them choral read a couple of times to get the rhythm of it. Next, let the children work in partners, or independent if they wish, choosing a favorite animal and create their own poem with their animal. For a bigger challenge, have them choose a new animal AND a new verb for their original poetry.

Marvelous Math

A Book of Poems

Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Illustrated by Karen Barbour

Lee Bennett Hopkins has gathered 16 poems with different perspectives on math by many well-known poets such as Karla Kuskin, David McCord and Janet S. Wong. The rhyme scheme is a mixture of couplets as well as free verse that makes for a good variety. Selections range from laugh-out-loud funny such as "Who Hasn't Played Gazintas": "In your arithmetic/the problem is what sticks./The language isn't bound/by spelling, but by sound./So 3 gazinta 81./The answer? 27. Done!" to the more serious "Math Makes Me Feel Safe": "Math makes me feel safe/knowing that my brother will always be/three years younger than I am/and every day of the year will have twenty-four hours." There are also several poems that address how math is used in every day life. For example, readers will find themselves wondering after reading Mary O'Neill's "Take A Number": (excerpted)

Imagine a world

Without mathematics:

No rulers or scales

No inches or feet,

No dates on or numbers

On house or street. . .

Wouldn't it be awful

To live like that?

Illustrator Karen Barbour does a great job with her whimsical watercolor pictures for each poem - helping to illuminate the meaning for the reader. Many of the poems are experiences that the intended audience of 3rd-5th graders may relate to. However, any person who has struggled with math or finds it thrilling will enjoy this collection of poetry. MARVELOUS MATH has the wonderful ability to help children see that math is not just numbers but can also be poetry.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 1997. MARVELOUS MATH, A BOOK OF POEMS. Ill. Karen Barbour. New York: Scholastic.

This poem is from a journal of poems chronicling the life of a hummingbird family one spring from February 3rd through April 1st. In the author's note, Ms. George relates how the hummingbird nest on her family's patio and the journal she kept "evolved into this poetry collection."
Just Hatched

by Kristine O'Connell George

Each new
breath a shudder
as he huddles down deep
in the nest, head tucked in,
his body softly rounded,
warmly molded to the form
he once knew so well,
the smooth curved
world of shell.

From: HUMMINGBIRD NEST. By Kristine O'Connell George. Illustrated by Barry Moser. Published by Harcourt, Inc. Copyright 2004.

Using the links below, as well as any of the print resources at the end of the book, research and share about hummingbirds. There are over 300 different species of hummingbirds, find out which are indigenous to your area. A good class project would be to research what type of plants attract these little birds and plant them in a school garden or flower bed and see if you soon have some new little friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird

http://www.hummingbirdworld.com/h/

THE MUSIC OF DOLPHINS

by Karen Hesse

In award-winning author Karen Hesse's free verse novel, The Music of Dolphins, she captures what it means to be human for one girl. After being the lone survivor is a plane crash at sea, Mila - Spanish for miracle - has been raised since the age of 4 by a pod of dolphins until she is "rescued" against her will by Coast Guard officers and taken to a research facility to be studied. Told in the voice of the feral child, as she shifts into a more human spirit and understanding, the typestyle changes to smaller print. It changes again, to increasingly larger print, when she chooses to return to her dolphin family where she is more comfortable and happier.

Hesse does a phenomenal job of capturing the three different voices of Mila through her journey to humanity and back. This book deals with many abstract concepts such as language, love, and freedom - often a challenge to understand for the 9-12 year olds at which it is aimed. With Hesse's clever use of simple language and the changing typestyles, readers will be enthralled and not want to put it down. Because this is such a different type of novel, the fact that it is free verse is unusual in the first place, even the most reluctant readers will enjoy it. The Music of Dolphins literally sings to readers everywhere.

Hesse, Karen. 1996. THE MUSIC OF DOLPHINS. New York: Scholastic Press.

LAUGHING TOMATOES

AND OTHER SPRING POEMS

by Francisco X. Alarcon Illustrations by Maya Christina Gonzalez

Award-winning bilingual poet, Francisco X. Alarcon, has created another winner in his book of delightful free-verse poems, Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems. Alarcon, is the author of several books of poetry for adults but this is his first publication aimed at children ages 9-12 years of age. In here, he returns to the joy of his childhood, family, friends and especially his grandmothers. Alarcon celebrates those everyday items such as corn, chiles, springtime and the magic of being a child in both English and Spanish verse. His poems are concrete and about things in most everyone's life.The very first of the 18 poems must be read, to a child's delight, upside down! This sets the tone for even more fun in the rest of the poetry. Alarcon writes in "Tortilla":

"each tortilla

is a tasty

round of applause

for the sun"

It is this sense of joy in the ordinary that will help young readers understand better what free verse is and that poetry can be about anything the writer wants it to be about. Both avid poetry readers and beginner or reluctant readers will enjoy this book.

The illustrations by Maya Christina Gonzalez add to the playfulness of Alarcon's words. Utilizing cartoon watercolor drawings, she fills the pages of happy people with tomato smiles, joyful animals and inviting fruits and vegetables.

Laughing Tomatoes is a feast for the eyes, ears and the soul.

Feast well and enjoy!

.

Alarcon, Francisco X. 1997. LAUGHING TOMATOES AND OTHER SPRING POEMS. Ill. Maya Christina Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.

This poem is an example of a mask or persona poem - a poem written in the voice of an animal or object.

CRAYON DANCE
By April Halprin Wayland

The cardboard ceiling lifts
Pickmepickmepickme, I pray
The fingers do! They choose me, Sky Blue!
Hurrah! Hooray!

As I am picked from the pocket
All colors whisper, “Good-bye, Pastel!
Be strong! Don’t Break!
Enjoy! Farewell!”

Hi, hi! I’m scrubbing a sky!
Some stripes and whorls and — whee!
Cha-cha-cha, loop-de-loop
I’m leaving bits of me!

They gave me a chance!
All of me rocks in this
Fine, wild dance —
The dance of me, Sky Blue!

Leaping and laughing, this message I’m leaving:
Ha ha!
Hi hi!
Hurrah!
Hurray!
Good-bye!

From: DIRTY LAUNDRY PILE, POEMS IN DIFFERENT VOICES

Selected by Paul B. Janezcko. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet.

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers.

Copyright 2001.

After reading poem, show an object - perhaps a shoe, a book or something else familiar in the classroom. Discuss what this item might say if it were given the chance. Let children work in pairs to choose an object from the room and write their own original poem from the perspective of that item. When it is time to share, don't mention what the item is - let the listeners guess and see if they can figure it out. (For younger students, a group or class poem might be more appropriate.)

DELICIOUS HULLABALOO/PACHANGA DELICIOSA

By/Por Pat Mora

Illustrated by/Illustraciones por Francisco X Mora

Award-winning poet and author Pat Mora takes readers along to a delightful party featuring salsa-making lizards and guitar-playing armadillos. Delicious Hullabaloo/Pachanga Deliciosa, written in verse in both English and Spanish is a single-poem picture book. Mora has aimed this publication at children ages 4-8 years old.

The poetry is written in half-rhymed and rhymed couplets in English, as well as Spanish. It has a great rhythm or cadence for reading aloud in Spanish but the English at times is a bit difficult. Young readers will fall in love with the bright colors and cartoonish pictures of lime-colored lizards and purple armadillos dancing and "drinking moonlight". The audience's imaginations will go wild as the double-page water-color illustrations enhance and support this story in verse.

This was a fun book to read - especially to my 4-year old daughter. It is bright, imaginative and fun. Great as a read-aloud or read silently, surely both avid and reluctant readers will love to "dance to moon and starlight too, join in the fiesta, the delicious hullabaloo."

Mora, Pat. 1998. DELICIOUS HULLABALOO/PACHANGA DELICIOSA. Ill. Francisco X. Mora. Houston: Pinata Books.

To Make a Garden is a poem that, simply stated, is about gardening. However, upon reading it, one realizes the magic that happens between a seed, soil, water and sunshine.

To Make a Garden
by Mary Ann Hoberman

To make a garden all you need
Is just a single simple seed,
A patch of earth, a sheltered spot
That's not too cold, but not too hot,
A little rain, a lot of sun,
That's all you need;
And when you're done,
In some strange way your seed will know
Just how to sprout and how to grow
Until you see to your surprise
A miracle before your eyes,
A baby leaf still curled up tight
That's pushing upward toward the light.
What will it be? A tree? A weed?
Each one is started from a seed.

From: MY SONG IS BEAUTIFUL (Little, Brown and Co., 1995)

This poem is a great introduction for a unit on plants - for any elementary grade. Read the poem aloud then discuss creating a class garden with the students. Explain how each child will be given seeds to plant and this will be their very own plants to tend and care for. Seeds can be started in cups inside, if weather is too harsh, then transplanted outside at the appropriate time. Have other poetry and plant books nearby for the children to peruse freely.

GOOD TIMES,

GOOD BOOKS!

selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

pictures by Harvey Stevenson

Noted poet, writer and anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins selected the poems for this delightful little book. This is a wonderful collection of poetry by several authors, some more well-known than others. The fourteen poems form a cohesive book that deals with . . . books! Each of the selections are short enough to be read quickly - yet with enough substance to savor again and again. The double-page layouts of bright pastel watercolor illustrations by Harvey Stevenson contribute to the casual, fun tone of the book but don't overwhelm the poems themselves.

Most of the poems have some sort of rhyme scheme but a few do not, utilizing a free-verse format. The use of figurative language is prevalent throughout the book. In fact, several of the poems use personification to engage the reader's imagination such as Isabel Joshlin Glaser's What If or as Prince Redcloud writes in And Then:

"I was reading

a poem

about snow

when

the sun

came out

and

melted it."

The intended audience is elementary-age children, ages 5-8 years. They will certainly enjoy the concrete meanings but older readers will bring a different set of experiences to the poems and enjoy them just as much. Good Books, Good Times! is very reader-friendly making it an excellent choice for book lovers as well as reluctant readers. I rather enjoyed all of the selections and the places in my mind where they took me.

Poets in this anthology include: William Cole, Aileen Fisher, Isabel Joshlin Glaser, William J. Harris, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Leland B. Jacobs, X.J. Kennedy, Karla Kuskin, Myra Cohn Livingston, Arnold Lobel, David McCord, Beverly McLoughland, Jack Prelutsky and Prince Redcloud.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 1990. GOOD BOOKS, GOOD TIMES!. Ill. Harvey Stevenson. New York: HarperCollins.

This poem expresses the joy found in both losing oneself and then finding oneself in the magic of poetry. This poem, in particular, reminds me of my childhood when my mom would force me to go outside to play. Little did she know I had a secret stash of books hidden in the garage for just those times.

GIVE ME A BOOK
by Myra Cohn Livingston

Give me a book
and long tall grass,
There will I look,
as the hours pass

To other places
I can see;
To other faces
strange to me.

In black and white
they fill my head
With men and women--
vanished, dead--

Of hope and fear,
of wish and need.
The world stands still.
I, breathless, read,

And in their history
I see
The untold mystery
Of me.

From: Good Books, Good Times!
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Published by Charlotte Zolotow Books
Copyright 1990

Extension: (Best for grades 4+)
Take class outside and sit under a tree or in the grass if possible. The poet writes about losing oneself in books and all the places and people one can encounter in books. Have students share the title of a favorite book that "takes them someplace" or the name of a character they connect with. Share personal experiences.