Concrete poems give poets a means to entertain readers with word magic and graphic art magic. I encountered this form of poetry relatively recently and have seen first hand how excited young children become when they see how the words in a poem can be used to create a picture. This wonderful book is packed to the gills with lots wonderful concrete poems that tickle the mind and delight the eye.
A spectacular Selection of Sea Critters
Betsy Franco
Illustrated by Michael Wertz
Poetry Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Lerner, 2015, 978-1-4677-2152-3
Many people love spending time at the seaside, paddling
in the waves, and exploring ocean worlds. They are fascinated by the creatures
that live underwater; the fish, turtles, jellyfish, stingrays, eels and other
animals.
In this
delightful book Betsy Franco’s clever concrete poems are paired with wonderful
artwork to give readers a memorable journey into the world of sun, sea, sand,
and “sea critters.” The words on the pages are arranged to create shapes and
patterns that reflect what is being said in the poems, and these arrangements
of words perfectly complement the illustrations to give readers a singular
reading experience.
We begin with a
piece of poetry called Sun Mail. The warmth
of the sun is sending us an invitation to go “Snorkling today!” and when we dip
our heads beneath the ways we see schools of fish where all the fish move in
perfect unison to the right, the left, up and down. The fish “shift together in
a flash” and as one “they swim together to survive.”
In the water we
encounter box jellyfish, “fascinating” creatures that move around by
“undulating” and “pulsating.” We see a sea turtle “row by” with “flippered
wings,” and a king angelfish, which is territorial about her space. Among the
coral, butterfly fish spend their days “floating, flitting, flickering,
fluctuating feeding.” The peaceful harmony of their world is rudely interrupted
when they have to flee from a hungry eel.
Puffer fish,
cleaner fish, needlefish, sea horses, Moorish idols, trumpet fish and others
cover the pages of this special book. There are poems in rhyming verse, blank
verse, a haiku, an acrostic poem, a tercet, a limerick, a riddle and more.
Throughout the book Betsy Franco dazzles us with her remarkable word pictures
and delights us with her creativity.
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