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.