Samantha on a Roll

Author: Linda Ashman
 Illustrator:   Christine Davenier
Publisher:  Margaret Ferguson Books
Publication Year:   2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Charlotte Zolotow Award, Kirkus starred review

Summary:  In rhyming text, this is the story of the brash Samantha who wants to learn to skate. Even though her mother doesn't have time to teach her, she takes off to teach herself (without her mother's knowledge.) Despite not knowing how to brake, she heads up Hawthorne Hill and heads down, destroying everything in her path. When she sees a kite, she rides it home where her mother is now ready to teach her to skate! The colored pencil and watercolor illustrations perfectly capture Samantha's facial expressions and her body language.

Classroom Ideas: There is some great vocabulary (flustered, swerving, snags) and some onomatopoeia. Samantha is a captivating character as well.

What Little Boys are Made of

Author & Illustrator:   Robert Neubecker
Publisher:  Balzer + Bray
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Bank Street College Best Children's Books, Kirkus Best Books,

Summary:  Neubecker builds on the traditional phrases in the classic nursery rhyme. Neubeker's ideas: moons and stars and rockets to Mars (I want that rainbow patchwork rocket!), snakes and rats and big jungle cats, vines and rocks and razor-tooth crocs, sticks and stones and skulls and bones, Ships and sails and oceans and whales....and the surprises keep on coming! Spreads of  sweet small images with lots of white spaces are alternated with gorgeous, vivid, two-page spreads that almost jump off the page! My son would have adored the dragon spread when he was younger! A must for anyone who loves a boy, is having a boy, or was a boy!

Classroom Ideas: The rhymes are perfect and the build-up on the well-known song will appeal to all young readers.

The Man from the Land of Fandango

Author: Margaret Mahy
Illustrator:   Polly Dunbar
Publisher:  Clarion
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Kirkus Best Book

Summary:  The man from Fandango is a round-face, red-cheeked character who only comes to town every 500 years (so you'd better be home when he calls). This silly rhyming book tells the story of what he does when he comes to visit-- dancing, flying, and cavorting with lots of animals, including dinosaurs. The text is written in a curled form and the illustrations are child-like watercolor and collage.

Classroom Ideas: There is rhyme (break and a drink and a cake) and lots of alliteration (friendly fandandical way, tingle and tongle and tangle) here; but mostly this book is just exuberant fun.

All the World

Author: Liz Garton Scanlon
Illustrator:   Marla Frazee
Publisher:  Beach Lane Books
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   Cadecott Honor,NYT Best Book, Publisher's Weekly Best Book, Kirkus Best Book, School Library Journal Best Book, Parents' Choice Gold Award, Indies Choice Award

Summary:  This book, told in rhyme, starts from the smallest things ("Rock, stone, pebble, sand") and moving to all encompassing words ("All the world is wide and deep"). The illustrations mirror this idea with a great deal of white space on the first page moving to two-page spreads that fill the space with detail, color and movement.  I am hard pressed to choose my favorite spread- they all invite me to relax and be at peace with the world. What a beautiful book!

Classroom Ideas: This book is full of beautiful images of the world which could be easily mimicked by young writers and artists.

A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play

Author: Marilyn Singer
Illustrator:   LeUyen Pham
Publisher:  Clarion Books
Publication Year:   2012
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Kirkus Best Books

Summary:  These poems are all written to encourage and celebrate playing outside. (A bit ironic to write a book encouraging outside, but ....) The things that are lauded here will appeal to any kid, from playing with your dog to jumping rope to hide-and-seek to stargazing. My favorite is called "Making Soup" because I can totally remember doing just that with friends in my neighborhood ("Soup, soup, we're making soup with grass and stones and mud (one scoop), a hunk of cheese, a celery stalk, an old cigar, a piece of chalk.") The pictures are rich and detailed, with children of all nationalities playing together.

Classroom Ideas: This book could be a great mentor text for kids to write poetry about whatever it is that they like to do.

Spinster Goose: Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children

Author: Lisa Wheeler
Illustrator:   Sophie Blackall
Publisher:  Antheneum
Publication Year:   2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Bank Street Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Best Books

Bank Street Best Books of the Year
Great Lakes Great Books Master List (MI)
Kirkus Best Children's Book
- See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.net/Spinster-Goose/Lisa-Wheeler/9781416925415#sthash.cbfb5gmj.dpuf

Summary:  The conceit behind this collection of poetry is that Mother Goose sends bad children to the reform school run by Spinster Goose.  ("Bean after bean, the kids turn green. They sweat, and shake, and drool. As stomachs turn, the kiddies learn the motto: Life is Gruel.")

Classroom Ideas: There is, of course, rhyme and rhythm in these poems. The vocabulary is quite rich and sophisticated for the intended audience (mottled, abhor, sordid, bleak). The theme will absolutely appeal to children who completely agree that misbehaving children should get what's coming to them!  ("The pinchers get pinched, and the pokers get poked...") There are also some fun puns included.

Extras: table of contents

Hey, You!

Editor: Paul B. Janeczko
Illustrator:   Robert Rayevsky
Publisher:  Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Year:   2007
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Horn Book starred review

Summary:  A collection of poems written to address objects. The poets included range from Emily Dickinson to Ogden Nash to J. Patrick Lewis; and the objects that are addressed range from a mote of dust to the Vietnam War Memorial. The illustrations have muted watercolor backgrounds with sketched in characters that give a very modern vibe to the book.

Classroom Ideas: The central conceit of this collection would be an easy one to introduce to kids and have them to attempt their own poems of address. The poems all have rhythm and many have rhyme. There are forms and figures here to appeal to any reader.

Extras: table of contents

A Curious Collection of Cats

Author: Betsy Franco
Illustrator:   Michael Wetz
Publisher:  Tricycle Press
Publication Year:   2009
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards:   Lee Bennett Hopkins Award Honor book, ABC Best Book for Children, Horn Book starred review

Summary:  Thirty concrete poems about cats perfectly illustrated. While the poems are beautiful, the subjects are not romanticized, but described in a way that would be recognized by anyone who's lucky enough to be owned by a cat. ("A big, brown empty grocery bag is Sweetie's favorite thing. When he lunges out to grab our toes, Our Sweetie's menacing!") A must have for any animal lover!

Classroom Ideas: The poems contain rhyme, rhythm, and figurative language. They would be highly motivating for kids to write their own cat poetry (or any other animal for that matter). It would also be a fun cross-curricular activity for an art teacher & a writing teacher.

A Dazzling Display of Dogs

Author: Betsy Franco
Illustrator:   Michael Wertz
Publisher:  Tricycle Press
Publication Year:   2011
Location: Knox County Public Library- Halls

Awards:   School Library Journal starred review, Green Earth Book Award Winner, Indie Kids’ Next List, Printz Honor Title, Edgar Award Nominee

Summary:  A collection of concrete poetry about dogs. The illustrations and the poems are tightly connected and the dogs in the poems are perfectly described. ("Found at the Pound: She didn't bark or make a fuss. She wagged her tail and smiled at us. She trotted out, came straight to me, became a part of my family!") There are different forms, such as a cinquain, but the topic is always the focus. I can think of so many people that I want to run out and buy a copy for!

Classroom Ideas: The poems in the book have rhyme, rhythm, and figurative language in them. There are also examples of types of poetry as well. Concrete poems are such fun for kids to read and to write.

Mrs. Biddlebox

Author: Linda Smith
Illustrator:  Marla Frazee
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Year:  2002
Location: Knox County Public Library- Lawson McGhee

Awards: Starred review in Publishers Weekly, Parents' Choice Award Winner, Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration

Summary: Mrs. Biddlebox wakes up the wrong side of her bed (bunk...) and trudges out into the world. She decides to cook the morning into a cake and gathers her ingredients: lawn, shadow, fog, sun, sky, and puts the whole day into her dough. She ate the whole cake with tea and "welcomed in the night." The swirled illustrations bring Mrs. Biddlebox and her environment to life. The reader can feel the motion in the drawings and the final spread with its multi-colored swirls in the night sky is just awesome. 

Classroom Ideas: There are so many great words in this book (knotty, dreary, dank, deary, mussied) and end rhyme in the text.

Oh, No!

Author: Candace Fleming
Illustrator:   Eric Rohmann
Publisher:  Schwartz & Wade Books
Publication Year: 2012  
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Kirkus starred review & Best Book, School Library Journal starred review, Bull-Bransom Award

Summary:  The rhyming text in this book is infectious! Frog falls into a hole and then his friends try to get him out. Unfortunately, they all fall in too. Then Tiger comes over, sees all the tasty animals in the hole together and offers to "help" them out. Instead, Elephant comes along and shakes the ground so Tiger falls in too. In the end, Elephant helps almost all of them out, but Tiger remains in the hole. Rohmann's gorgeous relief cuts pull the reader into the jungle environment perfectly, and the final endpaper with Tiger's paws just showing to pull him out of the hole is priceless!

Classroom Ideas: This book is full of rhyme, rhythm, onomotopeia, and repetition. It would be fun to show kids the two endpapers and have them make predictions about the story, as they perfectly bookmark it!

In the Small, Small Pond

Author & Illustrator:   Denise Fleming
Publisher:  Henry Holt and Company
Publication Year:   1993
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Caldecott Honor

Summary:  This is the story of how a pond comes to life during the spring time as the animals move around. The gorgeous, vibrant illustrations were created by "pouring colored cotton pulp through hand-cut stencils [to create] images set in homemade paper!"

Classroom Ideas: While it only uses a few words, they are masterfully chosen and could easily be used to spur a lesson on word choice. There is also rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. Obviously, it could also be used to teach science and life cycles.

Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin!

Author: Lloyd Moss
Illustrator: Marjorie Priceman
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Publication Year:  1995
Location: Knox County Public Library- Powell

Awards:   Caldecott Honor, Parent's Choice
Summary:  The story of how music is made and the different instruments in an orchestra.  On each two-page spread, there is an instrument, the sounds it makes and what the grouping is called. The illustrations are vibrant and colorful and even the typography is curved and frenetic. My children loved to follow the cats, dog, and mouse as even they joined the orchestra!

Classroom Ideas:This book is written with rhyme and rhythm and has amazing word choice. I know several elementary music teachers who use it to teach the names of musical groupings and instruments.