Poetry

The two books that I read this week for poetry was Iggy Peck, Architect written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts, and Where the Sidewalk Ends written/illustrated by Shel Silverstein.

Iggy Peck is a fun and creative books that uses a rhyming scheme to tell the story of a second grader with an architectural gift. Since he was two Iggy has creating building and models out of any material he can find; Unfortunately, his second-grade teacher refuses to talk about building as she had a traumatic experience and demands that he tears down his chalk castle.  However, Iggy's skill is just what Miss. Leila Greer needs after a school field trip goes awry. Overall this book is a very fun story about creativity and artistic gifts in kids. I use it in my classroom to talk about imagination and creativity, and how important it is to think outside the box when looking at creating with materials. The illustrations are a perfect supplement to the creative and unique story. they are in an antique-like sketch style that flows nicely with the poetry layout. The end pages and the background of some of the pages are the gridded drafting paper, allowing a discussion on an important architectural material.

For the anthology book, I reread the beloved classic of Shel Silverstein. Like many others, my earliest memory of reading or working with poetry in school was reading (and memorizing) his poems and not much else. However, it is easy to remember why it is so used and loved, the poems are catchy, creative, funny, and relatable yet fantastical, all accompanied by line sketches. The poems range from all subjects, from finding a brother box, to getting eaten by a boa constrictor, and even about the somberness of the 25th of Christmas. They also range in all a lengths, so just a few lines to a full page or two, I think that by mixing in the lengths it adds to randomness charm of the anthology as well and let students who are overwhelmed by lots of text still have an entry point to the genre. The book's silliness and charm is so inviting to readers of all ages, it is no surprise that even after 44 years it is still going strong.