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Dear Book Lovers, Welcome! I am delighted that you have found The Through the Looking Glass blog. For over twenty years I reviewed children's literature titles for my online journal, which came out six times a year. Every book review written for that publication can be found on the Through the Looking Glass website (the link is below). I am now moving in a different direction, though the columns that I write are still book-centric. Instead of writing reviews, I'm offering you columns on topics that have been inspired by wonderful books that I have read. I tell you about the books in question, and describe how they have have impacted me. This may sound peculiar to some of you, but the books that I tend to choose are ones that resonate with me on some level. Therefore, when I read the last page and close the covers, I am not quite the same person that I was when first I started reading the book. The shift in my perspective might be miniscule, but it is still there. The books I am looking are both about adult and children's titles. Some of the children's titles will appeal to adults, while others will not. Some of the adult titles will appeal to younger readers, particularly those who are eager to expand their horizons.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Poetry Friday with a review of Kids Pick the Funniest Poems

Finding poems that appeal to children is not easy. They have to be just the right length, have the right tone, and the right kind of rhyme. Thankfully, there are people out there who are willing to do what it takes to find out what works for children. One of these people is Bruce Lansky, and today I have a review of a book that he worked one, a book that is packed with poems that children chose. 

Kids Pick the Funniest Poems
Kids Pick the Funniest Poems
Selected by Bruce Lansky
Illustrated by Stephen Carpenter
Poetry
For ages 6 to 8
Meadowbrook, 1991, 978-0671747695
Most of the time the poems in poetry anthologies are chosen by adults. For this collection the editor, Bruce Lansky, asked children what their favorite poems were. He then read through all the poems that were chosen, twenty thousand in number, and then chose five hundred that he thought would best interest young readers. Bruce then presented these five hundred poems to a panel of three hundred elementary school children and they told him which of these they liked best. The interesting thing about this process is that all the poems that were chosen are funny. Some were written by famous poets such as Dr. Seuss and Ogden Nash, while others were written by wonderful poets who are not as well known.
   The collection is divided into nine topic sections, each one of which focuses on one particular subject. The topics chosen include parents, siblings, friends, disasters and monsters, which are the kinds of subjects that children are interested in.
   We begin with poems about “Me,” which are all written from the point of view of a child. In the first one the narrator is “glad that I am me.” Even though people stare at him when he behaves in ways that other people consider odd, he is determined that he is “not going to change and be someone I’m not.” In another me poem another child daydreams about all the things he would like to do and say to the grownups who inflict things on him. He’d like to “give the nurse the shot” and “send my mother to her room,” and best of all he dreams of being able to say “‘Cause I said so!”
   The next topic in the book is one that all children will appreciate because it is about parents. It explores the ways in which parents curtail children’s activities and make them do things that they, naturally, think are very unreasonable; things like eating liver and learning good manners. Some of the poems tell deliciously funny stories about parents whose children somehow get the better of them.
    The humor found in these poems is sometimes subtle, and sometimes it is just all out funny. Children will enjoy dipping into the book to find an amusing poem that lifts their spirits and that helps them to remember that though life has its trials, it is also full of good times, good books, and wonderful poetry.

   

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