Poetry Break: "The Mosquito's Song" by Peggy B. Leavitt

Introduction
Show students a picture of a mosquito or the illustration that accompanies this poem in Dirty Laundry Pile. Talk about mosquito "bites" and what really happens when a mosquito bites. Then, because this poem is a concrete poem, have copies of it for the children, a big poster of it, an overhead transparency, or place the book on an opaque projector.

The Mosquito's Song
 
I sing.        You slap.
I mean        no harm.
There is no cause
for your alarm.
A little drop 
is all I ask.
It really is
a simple task.
So please
hold still
at this 
juncture,
while I
make 
a tiny
P
U
N
C
T
U
R
E
!
 

[from Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices [Harper Collins Publishers, 2001)]

Extension

Talk about the form with students. They will recognize that the shape of the poem reflects a mosquito and its "needle-nose." Those that don't know what "puncture" means probably can guess just from the shape of that part of the poem!

Have other concrete poems out for students to browse through on their own. Invite them to write about an object/animal of their own choosing and put their writing in the form of what they are writing about. (Have paper, pencils, crayons, and markers available for them to craft and illustrate their concrete poems.) Display the poems around the library or classroom.

Poetry Review: A DIME A DOZEN by Nikki Grimes

Grimes, Nikki. 1998. A Dime a Dozen. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0803722273.

Nikki Grimes, winner of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for 2006, begins this slim volume of poetry with a short prose introduction in which she explains, "So lately I've been thinking a lot about my childhood, my family, and the events--both good and bad--that have shaped me. I've chosen a few of them to write about in this collection."

Connected chronologically into a loose plot, the first-person poems allow the reader to alight like a bee on moments in Grimes's past, sucking the nectar from her words and her distilled experience before flitting to the next memory. "Part 1: Genuis" explores her relationship with her family and her burgeoning sense of independence and self. When her long legs begin to outstride her mother's, she writes:

I set my own pace
'cause Spirit says
I'm headed places
that aren't marked
on my mother's
map.

[from "Stroll"]

"Part II: The Secret" deals with the aftermath of her parents' divorce, as the comfort of her warm family crumbles and her parents descend into self-destructive behaviors.

Empty Pockets

I used to wish
Dad would stop
gambling
with his
borrowed
money
and Mom's
buried
love.

In "Part III: A Dime a Dozen," she returns to the theme of searching for self but adds another dimension by illustrating her disconnection to her cultural identity as a young Black woman. The poet's genius is apparent, however, in her denial of her heritage ("Soul Food"), which is simultaneously an eloquent expression and celebration of her culture. One can sense the adult Grimes peering over the shoulder of the narrator, and in hindsight, taking pride in her Blackness. The book ends with an inspiring anthem to staying true to self and one's own dreams.


Grimes manages to capture the poignancy of her experiences with accessible but powerful language, subtle rhyme and rhythm, and the creative arrangement of words on the page. Sprinkled throughout the book are full-page, realistic, greyscale drawings by Angelo that complement the depth of the poetry, highlighting the range of emotions the narrator experiences and leaving readers with the desire to study the people in the illustrations in the same way they study pictures of their own loved ones.

The collection's only weakness is a minor break in the thread that holds the plot together. The poem "Foster Home" lacks connection to the poems before and after it, leaving the reader uncertain about the circumstances leading to and away from her time in foster care.

Ultimately, A Dime a Dozen will appeal to upper elementary-aged children and young adults of all cultures, not to mention adults who remember their own childhood and adolescent years. It addresses universal themes of family, loss, growing up, and following dreams in spite of naysayers. At the same time, though, it speaks in a special way to young readers of color.

Poetry Break: "Cricket Jackets" by Aileen Fisher

Introduction
Time, energy, and desire permitting, purchase crickets from a pet store or bait shop in advance. Make a number of terrariums by adding potato halves, potting soil, pebbles or gravel, and greenery to jars, then covering the tops with cheesecloth. (Feed crickets bits of fruit, vegetables, and dry rabbit food; give them a small container--like the lid from a smaller jar or a medicine bottle--filled with water.)

Make a display with the terrariums and books about crickets and bugs (see Extension below) that students can look at after the poetry reading.

Invite students to share what they already know about crickets.

*If you like to ham it up, you might pause, mentioning that you're a little cold. Take your sweater (a too-small one that you plant on the back of your chair as a prop beforehand) and try to put it on. Struggle dramatically, then finally give up, shrug, and say, "I guess this one doesn't fit anymore."

After you get back into reading position, ask, "Did you know that crickets wear jackets?" Then share the poem


Cricket Jackets
by Aileen Fisher

The day a cricket's jacket
gets pinchy, he can crack it
and hang it on a bracket
as he goes hopping by.

He doesn't need a mother
to go and buy another,
he doesn't need a mother,
and I will tell you why:

Beneath the pinchy jacket
the cricket sheds with vigor
he has a new one growing
that's just a little bigger,
to last him till July.

And then, again, he'll crack it,
his pinchy cricket jacket,
and hang it on a bracket
as he goes hopping by.

[from A Jar of Tiny Stars: Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets (Boyds Mill Press, 1996)]

Extension
Allow students time to observe the crickets in jars and browse the books on display, choosing one to check out if desired.

There are MANY books about crickets, but here is a small sampling of possible books to include:

Carle, Eric. 1990. A Very Quiet Cricket. Illustrated by the author. New York: Philomel Books.
Caudill, Rebecca. 1964. A Pocketful of Cricket. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Fisher, Aileen. 1963. A Cricket in the Thicket. New York: Scribner.
Simon, Seymour. 1973. Discovering What Crickets Do. New York: McGraw Hill Book Co.

Poetry Review: MUNCHING: POEMS ABOUT EATING

Munching: Poems About Eating. 1985. Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Ill. by Nelle Davis. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Well known anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins puts together a buffet of delicious poems about food and eating by noted poets such as Ogden Nash, Jack Prelutsky, Russell Hoban, Lewis Carroll, and Margaret Hillert. From Prelutsky's tribute to pasta in "Spaghetti! Spaghetti!" to Hopkins's street vendor bark, "Get 'em here," this book is a collection of short-but-sweet, easily digested poems that will appeal to kids of all ages. Everyone eats! And who can resist "Popsicles" and "Apple Pie"?

Set one-to-a-page in a large, comfortable font with lots of white space, the poems are presented in an inviting format for early consumers of poetry. Each poem is accompanied by a full-color, full-page illustration that captures the whimsical mood that permeates the collection. A table of contents and an index of authors, titles, and first lines allows readers to find favorite poems easily.

Fun rhymes ("Is my craving so outlandish / for the perfect turkey sandwich?"), alliterations ("city's smallest store"), assonance ("tucked...under...umbrella"), and word plays throughout the poems make them fun to read aloud over and over again. I particularly enjoyed Maxine Kumin's description of an artichoke: "with layers of petals to peel / like a box inside / of a box this wide / in a box in a box with a seal." Several of the poets play with form (Arnold Adoff's scattering words that reflect a child's attempt at using chopsticks, for instance), making their poems visually meaningful, too.

If you've ever slurped up spaghetti, stared eye-to-eye with a pair of sunny-side-up eggs, or felt a popsicle melt on your lips, you'll love this yummy collection.