NEW POETRY

Graham, Joan Bransfield and Krysten Brooker. The Poem That Will Not End: Fun with Poetic Forms and Voices. Las Vegas, NV. Amazon Children’s Publishing. 2014.

ISBN:978-1-477-84715-2

 

The Poem That Will Not End by Joan Bransfield Graham is a must have for anyone who loves poetry. Ryan O’Brien is a boy who simply cannot stop writing poetry. From the time he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed, he is constantly writing poetry about everything he sees and experiences. Children will love the humorous spin he puts on subjects such as eating breakfast, sports, being at recess and in the bathroom to name just a few. Even those students who think they are not fans of poetry will love the creativity of the poems.
 

This book is not a poetry book which consists of the same types of poetry but in fact has fifteen different types of poetry wrapped up between the covers of its book. Some poems rhyme and others don’t, but from the couplet about French fries to the sonnet about a music conductor, this book has something for everyone. 

Couplet For French Fries

Two lines are not enough to express

How much I adore your potato-ness.

Brooker’s illustrations are as creative and imaginative as the poems. They fit the poems so well that one would be hard pressed to tell which came first, the poem or the illustration. Some of the illustrations span two pages and some span one page but no matter how big or small, the illustrations add another layer of fun to this book.

Not only will children enjoy this book but teachers will find this book to be a great resource for introducing different types of poetry. At the end of the book, we find “Ryan O’Brian’s Guide to Poetic Forms.” With definitions for each type of poem in the book and page numbers where examples of that form can be found, this book is a must for the elementary poetry teacher.

SPOTLIGHT POEM

When teaching students about the different poetic forms, I would want to cover the acrostic form because I think the students would be interested enough to give it a try. An acrostic poem is one in which you use each letter of a word as the beginning of a word or phrase.

 RECESS

by Joan Bransfield Graham

Rambunctious

Excitement

Centering around

Excessive

Silly

Stuff

After sharing this poem and explaining the acrostic form, the students and I would embark on a brainstorming activity to write other acrostic poems as a group activity. I would then have them write one on their own.