National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry Review

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs that Squeak, Soar, and Roar!

Edited by J. Patrick Lewis

Bibliography

Lewis, J.P. (Ed.). (2012). National Geographic book of animal poetry: 200 poems with photographs that squeak, soar, and roar. National Geographic.

ISBN 9781426310096

Summary

Former U.S. Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis has compiled a high-interest poetry collection, pairing modern and classic animal poetry with vivid National Geographic photos of the animals referenced. There are 200 poems grouped into the following categories: Welcome to the World; the Big Ones: the Little Ones; the Winged Ones; the Water Ones; the Strange Ones; the Noisy Ones; the Quiet Ones; and Final Thoughts. It was fun to decide which category to choose to read and decide whether the animals were classified correctly. Lewis includes a few pages in the back matter devoted to tips on writing animal poetry, with examples of each. He also shares resources for writing other types of poetry. The credits for the gorgeous photography is extensive.

Analysis

If the goal is to get kids excited about animals or poetry, then Lewis accomplished this. Instead of reading this on my own to review, I read this out loud with my niece and nephew. We learned some new things about animals: baby porcupines are called "porcupettes" (107). We poured over the vivid photographs and marveled at how well the photos and poems aligned. The concrete poem A Flamingo Is is playful and fun, and the accompanying photo is astonishing. Photographer Bobby Haas captured the fact that Caribbean flamingos gather in the formation of flamingos!

Normally, I have an eye for figurative language when reading poetry, but this time interesting word usage is what leaped out for me: either uncommon words or words used in uncommon ways. The strangled rhymes made us all chuckle. In A Bee, Matsuo Basho rhymes "bee" with "peony" (57). Ogden Nash warns us, "Better yet, if called by a panther,/ Don't anther" (158). In describing a bull, one (anonymous) poet calls it "unpredictabull—", making us all groan with laughter (129). Kelly Ramsell Fineman uses "tentacle" as an adverb in their poem Sea Jelly, "It doesn't have lungs or a brain; most can't see./ It captures its dinner tentacularly" (98) which I found delightfully tongue-twisty. My favorite word is in the poem Why Wolves Howl by Anonymous. In it, "oboe" is used as a verb, "Gray wolves do not howl at the moon./ Across a vast/ timber/ zone,/ they oboe in/ mono-/ tone," (143). It's an inspired choice, because you can hear the sound of the oboe as the wolves call to each other.

Highlighted Poem

I chose this poem because it made my niece laugh, and she kept repeating the ending line the rest of my visit.

Don't Call Alligator Long-Mouth Till You Cross River

by John Agard

Call alligator long-mouth

call alligator saw-mouth

call alligator pushy-mouth

call alligator scissors-mouth

call alligator raggedy-mouth

call alligator bumpy-bum

call alligator all dem rude word

                     but better wait

                     till you cross river

Use

We will use one of the Lewis's suggestions from his back matter Writing Poems about Animals. We will write a Shape poem. Students will choose an animal and brainstorm words that describe it. Then they will write the words in the shape of the animal itself.