MODULE 3 - POETRY
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
2. PLOT SUMMARY
What my Mother Doesn’t Know, written in free verse, chronicles the boy-crazy exploits of fifteen-year-old Sophie. Her Jewish family, more by tradition than practice, defines dysfunctional; throughout the book Sophie’s feelings of alienation increase as her parents’ marriage gradually deteriorates. As her mother’s depression and her father’s aloofness grow, Sophie seeks emotional comfort within her peer group. Looking for love, Sophie’s romantic quest begins with sexy, good-looking Dylan, moves on to internet, chat-room Chaz, then to friend-from-preschool Zak, until the most unexpected connection with the school nerd, Murphy, sends Sophia for a loop, forcing her to look at life and love through more grown-up eyes. Along the way, strong, long-term friendships with two childhood friends serve to support and bolster Sophia until her own fears of peer pressure and scorn threaten to destroy her new found love. Everything from school to home life, from friendship to romance, from prejudice to acceptance, from peer pressure to independence is addressed in Sonya Sones’ powerful poetic look at adolescent love.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The general plot of What my Mother Doesn’t Know, that of girl meets boy, girl gets boy, girl dumps boy, repeat until true, unexpected and socially unacceptable soul mate comes along, holds nothing extraordinarily new or different. However, written as poetry, this novel takes on a new life that is timeless and powerful. The book is not so much about the actual events but rather it is about the emotional journey the reader experiences with the fifteen- year-old narrator, Sophie. The feelings emoted are universal to every young girl to some degree at some point during her adolescence. Sonya Sones does an excellent job capturing the laughter and tears, the angst and joy of a young teen and the poetic format is the ideal vehicle to express the magnitude of these emotions. Short phrases and even single words speak volumes and land devastating emotional punches. When Sophie speaks of her mother’s neglect the intense anger and sadness Sophie feels comes unabashed to the surface, “I hate her. / I hate her. / I hate her. // But I hate hating her. / I hate it.”
Sones draws on the nuances and rhythms of today’s teenage speech, making this verse novel a timely choice. However, as times change future teenagers might find less of a connection to the language though the emotional impact will surely shine through. Girls will readily identify with this novel and although most teenage boys probably would not want to be found reading a verse novel let alone one about first love, What my Mother Doesn’t Know might prove invaluable to them as an instructional guide into the teenage female psyche.
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
BOOKLIST - “The poetry is never pretentious or difficult; on the contrary, the very short, sometimes rhythmic lines make each page fly….A natural for reluctant readers, this will also attract young people who love to read.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS – “[T] he text gets at the emotional state of this girl so completely and with such intensity that a conventional narrative framework would simply dilute the effect…Sones has crafted a verse experience that will leave teenage readers sighing with recognition and satisfaction.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “With its separate free verse poems woven into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending, Sophie’s honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike.”
5. CONNECTIONS
Other significant verse novels targeting young adult readers:
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, J. Patrick. 2005. Please bury me in the library. Ill. by Kyle M. Stone. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc. ISBN 0152163875.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Comprised of sixteen poems of various types, Please Bury Me in the Library pays humorous homage to all the essential parts of reading: letters, words and books. (Unfortunately libraries are only the topic of two or, maybe if stretched, three of the poems.) Each entry in this poetry picture book is allotted an illustrated two-page spread. The overall tone of the collection feels light and the poetic moods range from nonsensical to silly, mildly thought provoking to profound. Preschoolers will enjoy the pictures but some of the wordplay might be more suitable for older elementary grades. Newcomer Kyle M. Stone creates the whimsical and sometimes scary artwork using a combination of acrylic paint and mixed media.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
J. Patrick Lewis’ clever imagination and wordplay talents shine brightly in most of this collection’s offerings: in Flea-ting Flame, Otto the flea writes his "Ottobiography," in Great, Good, Bad, a bad book owes “A forest of apologies,” in Are You a Book Person, a good book “She has a spine, / A heart, a soul, / And a goal- / To capture, to amuse, / To light a fire / (You’re the fuse)” and in the title poem, “Kids Books dance/ With True Romance / And the Dictionary dozes. / Please bury me in the library / With a dozen long-stemmed proses.” Lewis’ use of humor and rhyme further enhance the child-friendly appeal of this work. However, a couple of the selections are difficult to fathom, such as The Big-Mouth Girl and the last stanza of Three Haiku. Nonetheless the love of words and reading is a timeless topic and with technology threatening the future of libraries, at least in the minds of some, anything promoting libraries and reading physical books can only help! (Of course, maybe Lewis should have emphasized being buried alive in the library!) Stone’s illustrations, especially his cover art, grab the reader’s attention, drawing them into the poetry. They compliment rather than overwhelm the poems, never doing too much. This is an ideal book for any school or public library story time – never discount free promotion!
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
HORN BOOK MAGAZINE – “Stone’s layers of paint and other media enhance the text without over-explaining, as so many pictures with poetry do.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “The Lewis hallmarks are all here-clever wordplay, humor, rhyme-though the collection doesn’t have quite the spot-on snap of his best stuff.”
5. CONNECTIONS
With elementary students in groups:
1-Have them write as many funny names for popular book titles as they can ala What If Books Had Different Names.
2-Have them write a collective poem that starts with “A good book is …” ala Are You a Book Person.
Expect Noise!
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
2. PLOT SUMMARY
A Pizza the Size of the Sun, a collection of over a hundred poems, pairs, for the third time, the prolific children’s poet Jack Prelutsky and his partner-in-crime, illustrator James Stevenson. Aimed at the elementary grades, the duo romp through the kid-centered pages of verse; pages filled with nonsense and absurdity, rhythm and rhyme, humor and innuendo without ever seeming to break stride. Stevenson supplies simple sketches to compliment Prelutsky’s poetry. Topics range from animals to food to family to bugs to zany people to pure made up nonsense. No discernible structure exists for the overall organization of the work. The author provides a title and first line index in the end pages. An abridged audio version, performed by the author is also available.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Prelutsky and Stevenson have found a winning formula. Prelutsky’s imaginative combination of humor and poetry pull the young reader in. Whether laughing out loud to Dan the Invisible Man or I often Repeat Repeat Myself, or being grossed out by Bugs! Bugs! or Eyeballs for Sale! or marveling at the ingenious wordplay of If, the book is pure entertainment. The magic is timeless; the poems run the imaginative gambit from simple rhymes to visual word wonders, to mirror image verse and everything in-between all served with a heavy portion of humor to make each a surefire kid-pleaser. Some are better hear aloud, others must be seen. Variations in font and typeface add another element of interest; in I’m all Mixed Up, Prelutsky mixes lower and upper case letters randomly throughout the individual words making reading it surprising challenging yet interesting! Even the most reticent reader will plow through these poems with glee. Stevenson’s cartoon-like sketches complete the experience. His simple black-and-white line drawings give the poems that visual invitation many children need and everyone can appreciate.
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
HORN BOOK GUIDE - “Spirited line and wash drawings effectively convey the tone of the jaunty, usually funny, often silly, sometimes gross, and always childlike poems.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - “The pages are peppered with kinetic black-and-white drawings; like Thurber, Stevenson wrings a wealth of humor and emotion out of a few dashes of ink. If a laugh is what’s needed, just hand over the keys and let these two drive.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “Yet another masterful collection of poems by the prolific Prelutsky, filled with zany people, improbable creatures, and rhythm galore, all combining to celebrate the unusual, the mundane, and the slightly gruesome.”
5. CONNECTIONS
Print selected poems on overheads and perform choral readings. Taken seriously from the get-go, it’s practically a guarantee that everyone will dissolve into laughter by the end!
Suggestions:
1. I often Repeat Repeat Myself,
2. Eyeballs for Sale!
3. The Fummawummalummazumms
4. If
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Sones, Sonya. 2001. What my mother doesn’t know. New York: Simon &
- Schuster. ISBN 0689841140.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
What my Mother Doesn’t Know, written in free verse, chronicles the boy-crazy exploits of fifteen-year-old Sophie. Her Jewish family, more by tradition than practice, defines dysfunctional; throughout the book Sophie’s feelings of alienation increase as her parents’ marriage gradually deteriorates. As her mother’s depression and her father’s aloofness grow, Sophie seeks emotional comfort within her peer group. Looking for love, Sophie’s romantic quest begins with sexy, good-looking Dylan, moves on to internet, chat-room Chaz, then to friend-from-preschool Zak, until the most unexpected connection with the school nerd, Murphy, sends Sophia for a loop, forcing her to look at life and love through more grown-up eyes. Along the way, strong, long-term friendships with two childhood friends serve to support and bolster Sophia until her own fears of peer pressure and scorn threaten to destroy her new found love. Everything from school to home life, from friendship to romance, from prejudice to acceptance, from peer pressure to independence is addressed in Sonya Sones’ powerful poetic look at adolescent love.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The general plot of What my Mother Doesn’t Know, that of girl meets boy, girl gets boy, girl dumps boy, repeat until true, unexpected and socially unacceptable soul mate comes along, holds nothing extraordinarily new or different. However, written as poetry, this novel takes on a new life that is timeless and powerful. The book is not so much about the actual events but rather it is about the emotional journey the reader experiences with the fifteen- year-old narrator, Sophie. The feelings emoted are universal to every young girl to some degree at some point during her adolescence. Sonya Sones does an excellent job capturing the laughter and tears, the angst and joy of a young teen and the poetic format is the ideal vehicle to express the magnitude of these emotions. Short phrases and even single words speak volumes and land devastating emotional punches. When Sophie speaks of her mother’s neglect the intense anger and sadness Sophie feels comes unabashed to the surface, “I hate her. / I hate her. / I hate her. // But I hate hating her. / I hate it.”
Sones draws on the nuances and rhythms of today’s teenage speech, making this verse novel a timely choice. However, as times change future teenagers might find less of a connection to the language though the emotional impact will surely shine through. Girls will readily identify with this novel and although most teenage boys probably would not want to be found reading a verse novel let alone one about first love, What my Mother Doesn’t Know might prove invaluable to them as an instructional guide into the teenage female psyche.
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
BOOKLIST - “The poetry is never pretentious or difficult; on the contrary, the very short, sometimes rhythmic lines make each page fly….A natural for reluctant readers, this will also attract young people who love to read.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS – “[T] he text gets at the emotional state of this girl so completely and with such intensity that a conventional narrative framework would simply dilute the effect…Sones has crafted a verse experience that will leave teenage readers sighing with recognition and satisfaction.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – “With its separate free verse poems woven into a fluid and coherent narrative with a satisfying ending, Sophie’s honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike.”
5. CONNECTIONS
Other significant verse novels targeting young adult readers:
- Glenn, Mel. 2000. Split image: A portrait in poems.
- New York: HarperCollins Publisher. ISBN 0688162495.
- Sones, Sonya. 1999. Stop pretending: What happened when my big sister
- went crazy. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060283866.
- Wayland, April Halprin. 2002. Girl coming in for a landing. New York: Knopf.
- ISBN 0375801588.
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lewis, J. Patrick. 2005. Please bury me in the library. Ill. by Kyle M. Stone. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc. ISBN 0152163875.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Comprised of sixteen poems of various types, Please Bury Me in the Library pays humorous homage to all the essential parts of reading: letters, words and books. (Unfortunately libraries are only the topic of two or, maybe if stretched, three of the poems.) Each entry in this poetry picture book is allotted an illustrated two-page spread. The overall tone of the collection feels light and the poetic moods range from nonsensical to silly, mildly thought provoking to profound. Preschoolers will enjoy the pictures but some of the wordplay might be more suitable for older elementary grades. Newcomer Kyle M. Stone creates the whimsical and sometimes scary artwork using a combination of acrylic paint and mixed media.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
J. Patrick Lewis’ clever imagination and wordplay talents shine brightly in most of this collection’s offerings: in Flea-ting Flame, Otto the flea writes his "Ottobiography," in Great, Good, Bad, a bad book owes “A forest of apologies,” in Are You a Book Person, a good book “She has a spine, / A heart, a soul, / And a goal- / To capture, to amuse, / To light a fire / (You’re the fuse)” and in the title poem, “Kids Books dance/ With True Romance / And the Dictionary dozes. / Please bury me in the library / With a dozen long-stemmed proses.” Lewis’ use of humor and rhyme further enhance the child-friendly appeal of this work. However, a couple of the selections are difficult to fathom, such as The Big-Mouth Girl and the last stanza of Three Haiku. Nonetheless the love of words and reading is a timeless topic and with technology threatening the future of libraries, at least in the minds of some, anything promoting libraries and reading physical books can only help! (Of course, maybe Lewis should have emphasized being buried alive in the library!) Stone’s illustrations, especially his cover art, grab the reader’s attention, drawing them into the poetry. They compliment rather than overwhelm the poems, never doing too much. This is an ideal book for any school or public library story time – never discount free promotion!
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
HORN BOOK MAGAZINE – “Stone’s layers of paint and other media enhance the text without over-explaining, as so many pictures with poetry do.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “The Lewis hallmarks are all here-clever wordplay, humor, rhyme-though the collection doesn’t have quite the spot-on snap of his best stuff.”
5. CONNECTIONS
With elementary students in groups:
1-Have them write as many funny names for popular book titles as they can ala What If Books Had Different Names.
2-Have them write a collective poem that starts with “A good book is …” ala Are You a Book Person.
Expect Noise!
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Prelutsky, Jack. 1996. A pizza the size of the sun. Ill. by James
- Stevenson. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0688132367.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
A Pizza the Size of the Sun, a collection of over a hundred poems, pairs, for the third time, the prolific children’s poet Jack Prelutsky and his partner-in-crime, illustrator James Stevenson. Aimed at the elementary grades, the duo romp through the kid-centered pages of verse; pages filled with nonsense and absurdity, rhythm and rhyme, humor and innuendo without ever seeming to break stride. Stevenson supplies simple sketches to compliment Prelutsky’s poetry. Topics range from animals to food to family to bugs to zany people to pure made up nonsense. No discernible structure exists for the overall organization of the work. The author provides a title and first line index in the end pages. An abridged audio version, performed by the author is also available.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Prelutsky and Stevenson have found a winning formula. Prelutsky’s imaginative combination of humor and poetry pull the young reader in. Whether laughing out loud to Dan the Invisible Man or I often Repeat Repeat Myself, or being grossed out by Bugs! Bugs! or Eyeballs for Sale! or marveling at the ingenious wordplay of If, the book is pure entertainment. The magic is timeless; the poems run the imaginative gambit from simple rhymes to visual word wonders, to mirror image verse and everything in-between all served with a heavy portion of humor to make each a surefire kid-pleaser. Some are better hear aloud, others must be seen. Variations in font and typeface add another element of interest; in I’m all Mixed Up, Prelutsky mixes lower and upper case letters randomly throughout the individual words making reading it surprising challenging yet interesting! Even the most reticent reader will plow through these poems with glee. Stevenson’s cartoon-like sketches complete the experience. His simple black-and-white line drawings give the poems that visual invitation many children need and everyone can appreciate.
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
HORN BOOK GUIDE - “Spirited line and wash drawings effectively convey the tone of the jaunty, usually funny, often silly, sometimes gross, and always childlike poems.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - “The pages are peppered with kinetic black-and-white drawings; like Thurber, Stevenson wrings a wealth of humor and emotion out of a few dashes of ink. If a laugh is what’s needed, just hand over the keys and let these two drive.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL – “Yet another masterful collection of poems by the prolific Prelutsky, filled with zany people, improbable creatures, and rhythm galore, all combining to celebrate the unusual, the mundane, and the slightly gruesome.”
5. CONNECTIONS
Print selected poems on overheads and perform choral readings. Taken seriously from the get-go, it’s practically a guarantee that everyone will dissolve into laughter by the end!
Suggestions:
1. I often Repeat Repeat Myself,
2. Eyeballs for Sale!
3. The Fummawummalummazumms
4. If
posted by GradMomDLC @ 4:52 PM
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