Poetry Friday - A review of Soup for Breakfast

This Friday I have a review of a book that is full of poems that are unique and often deliciously funny. 

Soup for breakfast

Calef Brown

Poetry

For ages 5 to 8

Houghton Mifflin, 2008, 978-0-618-91641-2

   For most of us, breakfast foods are pancakes, waffles, toast, croissants, bagels, or cereal. We definitely don’t consider cream of broccoli soup to be a breakfast food. However, a poem in this book introduces us to someone who “is not a fan,” of traditional breakfast foods. This person starts the day with soup, and what a “morning treat it is.”

   If you think this is odd, then prepare yourself for more. This book is full of poems about deliciously strange people. For example, there is a poem about Grandpa’s mustache. Actually, his mustache is not a mustache at all, it is nose hair that has grown incredibly long. It is so long that people don’t realize what it really is.

   Further along in the book, we meet an artist who uses a very peculiar medium; he paints on toast. After priming the toast with butter, the artist uses blueberry jam to create a “beautiful sky” that is dotted with cream cheese clouds. What other foods will this artist use to complete his painting?

   In this wonderful collection of poems, Calef Brown explores the ordinary and the downright peculiar, giving his readers a unique poetical experience.