Independent Reading Level: Grade 4-5
Awards and Honors: 2008 Medal Winner

This book is full of poems just about all the little things that can run through a kids mind. It's a really fun book and would be great as an introduction or next level to poetry. The picture to go with each poem helps bring the poem to life. ( )

This book is a cluster of many different poems written by the author that talks about many different subjects. The poem "Good Books, Good Times!" is about if you have good books everything will be good including the beginnings, ends, people, facts, friends, and rhymes.
"Snow City" is about looking outside the window and taking in how magical snow can be.
"Split" is simply about lightning in the night sky.

This book includes many different topics that there is at least one poem that children can either connect to or they really like it. Some of the topics include: christmas, nighttime, thunderstorms, bedtime, watching snow fall, and eating watermelon on a hot summers day.
The book includes contents in the beginning of the book in order to find the poems more easier.

One thing I found pretty interesting about this was the poem, "Snow City".
"The snow glides quietly
d
o
w
n "

^The way this was written really brings more life to the poem since down is written in on a slanted line going down. ( )

Genre- Poetry because its a book full of poems
Age- Primary/Intermediate
Summary- All the poems are fairly easy and they have some hidden stories behind them but nothing to big.
Critique- I honestly an not a huge fan of poetry just because some times I can t connect with it but I think it is awesome for students to read it and have the opportunity to. I really like that there are several different poems in one book so that the student doesn't get bored. I could use this book just to introduce students to poetry. I also like it because the books poems are simple things and fun things that interest kids. Also I love that poems rhyme I think it is good for children to see that connection. ( )

A collection of poems about various things, this book explores the ordinary life of people from sounds in the city to the seasons to bedtime. There isn't the actual title of the poems, but based on the main topic of each poem and what they are about, the reader can tell what the whole book was really about given context clues of the each poem and their main ideas that leads to the big picture of the book. The style of this book is free verse. There are a lot of pauses the readers will make as they read along the text. In addition, the poems contain an artistic expression of alliteration. An example would be this:

Ancient necklaces,
African art,
Armor of knights,
A peasant carts;

This makes the text catchy and engaging to read and I thought it was a cool technique to incorporate in the book. Overall, it was okay but it was easy, simple, and age appropriate to read to young students. ( )