Poetry Friday: Boshblobberbosh

Boshblobberbosh: Runcible Poems for Edward Lear
By J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrated by Gary Kelley
Harcourt, 1998

I have recently begun a fascination with Edward Lear since I was trying to teach my students about limericks. I stumbled across this picture book biography of sorts by J. Patrick Lewis. The story is told in poems as a tribute to Mr. Lear. Lewis includes an author’s notes with a few facts about Lear’s life. Then in the back of the books there are notes on each poem and how it relates to something in Lear’s life. And yes, Lewis includes a few limericks himself.

The one I will share today is “A Day in the Life”. It has a companion poem “A Night in the Life” in the book.

A Day in the Life…

Mr. Lear
Wakes at ten
Walks six miles
Paints a glen
Points his cat
Home again

Picks an olive
Plucks a flower
Takes a bath
By thundershower
Hears the cuckoo
Cluck the hour

So at four
Sips his tea
Takes a nap
Later
he
Tickles high
Society

Pats his bed
Snuggles in
Opens
mail
With a grin
Reads a book
By Tennyson

Lays it down
Wonders long
Understands
What is wrong
Hums a little
Silly
song

Hums a little
Silly song
Hums a little
Silly…

Sadly, this book is out of print, but I found it at my local library.

Poetry Friday roundup is at Big A Little a

Artist's Block Book

The Last Resort
written by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Roberto Innocenti
Creative Editions, 2002
ISBN: 1-56846-172-0

I read this book twice. I know that if I read it 3 or 4 more times I’d find things I didn’t see the first few times. This is a picture book. What I found interesting is that the illustrator’s name was listed first. In fact, the illustrator’s name was almost as large as the title, so I wondered if it was part of the title. I had to look at the Library of Congress information (I’m sure there’s another scientific name for this, but I don’t know what it is ) to figure out who was the author and who was the illustrator.

The illustrations are very pivotal to this book. It has heavier text than many picture books, but the illustrators—often several to a page—tell much of the story. In fact the format reminded me somewhat of a graphic novel where you have several pictures and text to read per page and both are very important to your understanding of the story.

It’s the story of an artist who has lost his imagination and he goes on a trip to try to get out of his “artist’s block”. His car (a red Renault to be exact) leads him to a seaside hotel where other guests are also trying to find themselves again. A man with a pegleg, a young fisherboy, a sick young woman, a writer, a cowboy, a policeman, a pilot, and a Georgian gentleman all have parts in this magical hotel.

The pictures which give important details are matched with J. Patrick Lewis’ poetic prose. He describes the avenue he travels to the hotel as “a lane as long as loneliness, past a cliff beyond forgetting, through a spider-lightning night.” (p. 9)

There is an afterward in the book that explains the literary references to each of the characters in the book, many of which are characters that readers may not have heard of before. Nonetheless, it makes the tale of these characters even more enchanting as they go to the place of The Last Resort only to find their way out and inspired about what lies ahead.

If you have ever suffered from writer's block (or artist's block) and tried to find your way out, this book would appeal to you.

Poetry Friday--J. Patrick Lewis

J. Patrick Lewis has written a collection of poetry about African Americans called Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans. Lewis wrote poems about thirteen famous African Americans who paved the way for civil rights. These biographical poems are about Arthur Ashe, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Jesse Owens, Marian Anderson, Malcolm X, Wilma Rudolph, Billie Holiday.

I love books that present facts or elements of nonfiction in an unusual way. These biographical poems would be great ways to introduce kids to these heroes. In fact, they might like them even more after they’ve learned a little bit about each person.

My favorite poem in the collection is the titled, “Baby Contralto” about Marian Anderson.

“She brushed
Her voice
Across the air
In colors
Not seen
Anywhere.

In colors
Beautiful
And strong,
She brushed
The air…
And painted song.”


After reading through this collection, I had many picture book biographies come to mind. I would to like have students read the biographies and the poems and talk about writer’s craft and how two writers could share factual information in different ways. Some of the picture book biographies that I would love to use in conjunction with J. Patrick Lewis’ Freedom Like Sunlight include:


Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan
Wilma Unlimited by Kathleen Krull
Love to Langston by Tony Medina
Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth by Anne Rockwell
If I Only Had a Horn: Young Louis Armstrong by Roxanne Orgill

The back of the book has more information about each hero or heroine Lewis chose to portray through biographical poem. J. Patrick Lewis is always surprising. He writes serious, nonfiction poetry like Freedom Like Sunlight which really honors courageous people from history. He writes really funny poems like Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku which is just a romp with fun haiku, but makes kids really think in a riddle-like fashion. In contrast, his more traditional haiku book Black Swan/White Crow illustrates his ability to write the nature haiku that is more like the Japanese traditional haiku. He writes poems really stretch kids’ grasp of words like in the book Once Upon a Tomb: Gravely Humorous Verses, a collection of funny epitaphs.

J. Patrick Lewis is always amazing me with his use of words. My new find: Freedom Like Sunlight is one I really can’t wait to share with my students since they have learned so much about the African Americans he celebrates in this book.

Help Yourself to Haiku

Poetry Friday....

I must say, haiku books are some of my favorites. With the popularity of haiku for kids, some fabulous haiku books are coming out that are kid-friendly. Two of my new favorites are Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku by Paul B. Janeczko and J. Patrick Lewis—two poetry-for-kid kings--and Today and Today haiku by Issa, haiku orginalist, with illustrations by G. Brian Karas.

These books, while both aimed at kids, and both haiku collections, are truly at different ends of the haiku spectrum. That’s why I love these books. They both make haiku accessible to kids, but they show how different and how fun haiku can be.

Today and Today has just been released by Scholastic Press. Issa, is one of the haiku poets from Japan, where haiku originated. He wrote these poems in the late 1700s. This book is made up of very old poems. But they have been translated and illustrated and brought to life for the modern day child.

G. Brian Karas’ illustrations bring these ancient poems alive through his beautiful nature paintings. They are divided up by season, and since haiku are usually about nature, this is very appropriate.

My favorite is a summer haiku:

So many breezes
wander through my summer room:
but never enough

These poems give kids great examples of haiku that really follow the essence of what a haiku is: about nature, capturing one moment, simplistic. These poems, all fabulous, are only enhanced by G. Brian Karas’ illustrations.

On the other end of the spectrum, Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku by Paul Janeczko and J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Tricia Tusa, celebrate the fun in haiku. This book came out last spring (2006). These haiku do not follow the traditionalist approach where haiku are written about a moment in nature. They follow the pattern of a haiku, but they are jokes, plays on words, riddles, and laugh-out loud funny.

In fact, when I read this out loud to my classroom of fourth graders, there were many laughs, but they were delayed reactions. These are poems that kids “get”, but they have to think about it for a minute. Then they say, “Oh, I get it. (pause) That’s hilarious!” I love that delay because it sometimes just takes them a minute to “get it” and think outside the box.

My favorite:

Noah Webster had
no choice except to put
the cart before the horse

This book is a good romp for introducing the short fun of haiku, or allowing kids to chew on after they have spent some time studying traditional haiku. They can see how it can be fun to play with a poetic form and give it a twist. The illustrations by Tricia Tusa also give the book a playful mood. The illustrations are wild, bright watercolors with lots of details. They also help kids “get” the poem on more than one level. They definitely add another layer to think about.