good challenges for thinking
The British have done it again! This is a collection for children who have enjoyed nursery rhymes, played with rhyming humor, laughed at Prelutsky and Silverstein and now are ready for more meaty poetry.Students are expected to understand personification, simile, metaphore and ever so much more on standardized tests. Here is a collection that will give them the material in which to find those styles embedded in meaningful thoughts.
My fourth graders begin with "Knock at a Star" edited by Kennedy and then use this collection in the spring. I've bought class sets of both of these and the students are well ready to be led into understanding the deeper thoughts and feelings that poets embed in their poetry. Don't sell them short.
A World of Poetry
Well, unlike the other two reviewers, I enjoyed reading these poems to my children. I reviewed the book in the store before deciding to buy it. The two poems that were given as examples can be considered another way. The poem of war is very descriptive and true to life. Should war be viewed antiseptically? Should children believe war is a good easy thing the way our current administration would have us believe? The poem about the teacher was funny. Teachers come in with daggers in their eyes. The poem was symbolic. You know about symbolism don't you? What's wrong with getting the kids' attention, showing them that poetry isn't all stopping by the woods on a snowy evening. I've got tons of sweet poetry books for the early years. Many of these poems are great discussion starters. My kids listened intently. My son started some prose immediately after.
One Star is Too Many
As an elementary teacher who loves poetry, I am always looking for collections to share with my students. This book is awful. It's full of strange obscure poems about animals getting slaughtered. Here's one of Rosen's "gems"Ravens gnawing
men's necks
blood spurting
in the fierce fray
hacked flesh
battle madness
blades in bodies
acts of war
heroes felled
hounds cut down
horses mangled
tunics torn
the earth drinking
spilt blood.
I almost think this book is a spoof or a joke, there are so many poems similar to this one in this collection.
The previous reviewer is correct--one star is way too much for this piece of offensive, cruel, insensitive, horrible collection.
Shocking Book of Poems for Children Needs Warning Sign
Note: I would have given this book zero stars, but the Amazon review form will not print a review without a star rating. In a day and age when violence in schools is a major issue across America, I was shocked by the inclusion of so many poems focusing on themes of death and violence. As a third grade teacher, I was particularly appalled at a poem entitled "The Lesson",written by Roger McGough. The poem tells the story of a teacher teaching a lesson the students will never forget. Indeed, who could forget a poem that has a teacher hacking off fingers and toes, choking students, and taking aim with a gun? The poem goes on to tell of the headmaster's arrival with a grenade in hand. Vividly violent language pervades the poem and left me feeling numb. With so many wonderful poems, old and new, to choose from, it is incomprehensible that Michael Rosen would select such works for this "children's" volume. Another example of the inappropriate selections included in this anthology is "A Case of Murder", by Vernon Scannell. Here, the subject is a nine year old boy's brutal killing of a cat.I actually won a copy of this book in a contest sponsored by Kingfisher Books and Time For Kids Magazine. Thank goodness I previewed this book before adding it my third grade class' poetry collection. I believe the editors at Kingfisher have some explaining to do.
(4 reviews)
