You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Tall Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman and Michael Emberley

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Bibliography:

Hoberman, Mary A., and Michael Emberley. You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Tall Tales to Read Together. New York: LIttle, Brown and Company, 2014. ISBN 978031618329

Review and Critical Analysis:

Ever since I introduced the award-winning You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You series to my children, it has been a favorite of ours. This newest book in the series, You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Tall Tales to Read Together does not disappoint. It’s an excellent way to introduce new tall tales to children and revisit those that are more familiar. The book begins with a Table of contents followed by an “Author’s Note” that gives a brief explanation of tall tales and American storytelling. It also explains that the book is written for two (or more) voices, so that readers take turns reading and sometimes read stanzas together. Next, is an “Introduction” that gives a brief description of tall tales and the heroes readers are about to discover. The book contains thirteen poems about some well-known American legends (such as Davy Crockett and Johnny Appleseed), and some lesser-known American legends (such as Mose the Fireman and Don Jose Lopez). Hoberman includes a poem entitled “The End” to conclude the book.

This collection of poetry is great for early readers because of its alliteration, rhyme, and repetition. “Annie Oakley” says, “Annie Oakley, what a shot! / She could hit most any spot! / In a contest with a gun, / Bet your britches Annie won!” The rhyming story-telling technique draws young readers in and makes them want to keep reading. The repetition of “You read to me, I’ll read to you” at the end of each poem makes readers immediately want to turn the page to discover the next poem. Reading along with an adult who can model the rhythm and rhyme of the poems is a great way to encourage reading and a love for poetry in young children.  

Mary Ann Hoberman makes an excellent choice to include both familiar and unfamiliar tall tales in this book. Children will be drawn to the poem-stories about Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed because they are familiar characters. At the same time, they’ll discover the legends of Alfred Bulltop Stormalong and Febold Feboldson. Readers will have an easier time comprehending the poems they are more familiar with. They might struggle to understand the stories of those less familiar to them. It would have been helpful for readers to have a short paragraph or more to explain who each character is and what they are known for. This could have been included on each page or at the end of the book. Nonetheless, the book is still a fun read and encourages reading for young children.

Michael Emberley’s illustrations for this book of poetry were drawn in pencil, watercolor, and dry pastel on watercolor paper. The fine lines of pencil provide incredible detail to each drawing. HIs illustrations portray both the physical characteristics and the unique, often humorous, personality of each character. To the younger eye, they provide detailed images to supplement the story. To the older eye, they add a “laugh out loud” element to these already comical tall tales.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

Johnny Appleseed

Who’s that fellow over there?

His clothes are torn. His feet are bare.

He wears a saucepan for a hat.

I’ve never seen a hat like that.

Tell me, mister, who you are

And have you come from very far?

I’ve come from Massachusetts, yes,

That’s pretty far away, I guess.

Well, you’re in Indiana now,

Walking barefoot! Tell me how

And why you’ve come and what you do.

I’ve never seen a man like you.

When I was young and lived at home,

I’d often leave our house and roam.

My parents had ten girls and boys.

I’d go off to escape their noise.

Where did you go to get away?

I went out to the woods to play.

I got to know each plant and tree

And I decided what to be.

What did you think? What was your plan?

I thought I’d be an apple man.

An apple man? Explain that, please.

A person who plants apple trees.

I get my seeds from cider mills

And wander through the dales and hills,

Planting seeds each place I go

And watching all my orchards grow.

With all the orchards that you’ve made

And all your work, do you get paid?

The bees work hard and work for free.

It is the very same with me.

I plant my seeds and sing my song.

I don’t need much to get along,

And what I get, I always spend

To help old, ailing horses mend

And every person is my friend.

Well, you’re a wonder, yes, indeed!

Just think of all the folks you feed!

I sure am happy that you came.

And by the way, what is your name?

It once was Chapman, first name John.

Not anymore. My old name’s gone.

Each place I go, they’ve all agreed

To call me Johnny Appleseed!

Appleseed! That name is nice!

Now when folks eat an apple slice,

They’ll think of Johnny as they chew!

You read to me, I’ll read to you!

I would use this poem as part of a unit on Johnny Appleseed. Students would have already learned about who Johnny Appleseed was. This poem would reinforce what they learned. We would read it together as a class. I would read the stanzas in blue, and students would read in unison the stanzas in red. We would all read the final stanza in purple together. I would ask students if they learned anything new about Johnny Appleseed from the poem and we would discuss those things together.

I would also ask students what other information they have learned about Johnny Appleseed in our unit about him that were NOT mentioned in the poem. We would make a list of those things on the board together. Then, using that list, students would write two more stanzas that could be added to the poem - one stanza in blue and one in red. They would work in groups of two to do this and then present their stanzas to the class with one student reading each stanza.

Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Bibliography:

Sidman, Joyce, and Rick Allen. Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. ISBN 9780547906508

Review and Critical Analysis:

Winter Bees by Joyce Sidman and Rick Allen is a collection of 12 poems about how animals survive the “longest and coldest season of the north” - winter. The poems take an in-depth, scientific look at how these amazing creatures live through the coldest time of year. Alongside each poem, Sidman includes a paragraph containing descriptive, factual information about each animal and how it survives winter. Mixed in with the animal poetry are two poems about snow and trees in winter, explaining how snow forms and how evergreen trees tolerate freezing temperatures. Following these educational poems is a glossary of words from the poems that young readers will most likely not be familiar with. Sidman includes the words and their definitions so students can refer to them during reading.

The poems in this collection are written in a variety of styles. “Under Ice” is written in the poetic style of a pantoum. “”Brother Raven, Sister Wolf” is written in the form of a conversation between a raven and a wolf. “Dream of the Tundra Swan” is written in free verse, and its rhythm and sound is soft and graceful, much like one would imagine the movements of a tundra swan to be - “Dusk fell / and the cold came creeping, / came prickling into our hearts.” However, a turn of the page finds the “Snake’s Lullaby” written in two-line rhyming stanzas that seem sharp and twisting, much like that of a snake’s search for a place to hibernate for winter - “Brother, sister, find the ways / back to the deep and tranquil bays, / and ‘round each other twist and fold / to weave a heavy cloak of cold.” Each of Sidman’s poems is characteristic of the animal it is written about. The poems give the reader a brief look into the lives of each animal.

Without Sidman’s inclusion of the informational paragraph about each animal, the poems wouldn’t be nearly as effective. When first reading through this collection of poetry, I read the poem first, followed by the facts about the animal. Halfway through I switched and read the facts first. I found that knowing about the animal gave the poem much more meaning and emotional impact. Knowing that voles use the sugary and loose snow layer nearest the earth, called the subnivean zone, to make it easy for tunneling helped me understand lines like “how it bakes in the winter sun / like a crumbly white cake / studded with delectables.” Sidman’s factual information allowed me to feel the depth of each poem.

Rick Allen’s illustrations, created as hand-colored linoleum prints, are a perfect match for the poems in this book. Somehow the illustrations seem both dull and bright at the same time. I suppose even the sleepy colors of winter seem bright against a snowy, white background. Allen does an excellent job of capturing the feel of those colors in these illustrations. His illustrations are lively and fresh, and they show how these incredible animals survive, and often thrive, throughout winter.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

Brother Raven, Sister Wolf

You are Squawker, Croaker,

Alarm-on-the-wind.

You are Slinker, Shadow,

Nose-to-the-ground.

Fearful and flighty,

you peck and then flee.

Bound to the earth,

you leap, snap, and tumble.

Silver-winged Thief,

Yellow-eyed Snarler,

Stop following me!

Stop following me!

But don’t stray too far

Keep watching our woods.

Don’t slack off your work.

Keep tracking our dinner.

Eyes-of-the-forest.

Heart-of-a-hunter.

Raven, my Brother.

My Sister, Wolf.

In the factual information supplementing this poem, Sidman explains how the lives of wolves and ravens are intertwined in the northern regions. Ravens patrol from the sky and announce when they see potential prey. Wolves work on the ground hunting the prey the ravens announce, providing food for both of them. They even feed together, sometimes harmoniously and sometimes fighting or teasing each other. In this poem, Sidman includes a conversation between “brother” raven and “sister” wolf. The poem creatively shows the unique relationship between the two of them.

I would include this poem, and this book of poetry, in a lesson on winter. I would talk with students about winter and what winter is like for us. I would ask them what animals and insects they notice during winter. What animals don’t they notice? Where are those animals during the winter and how do they survive? We would also talk about animal relationships and how sometimes animals work together to survive. The raven and the wolf are an example of one of those relationships. I would read “Brother Rave, Sister Wolf” through one time. I would then read the information Sidman provided about them and discuss it further, ensuring that students understand how these animals work together to survive. Then, I would read the poem out loud again. I would discuss with students why Sidman calls them brother and sister and whose voice is whose in the poem.

Following this reading and discussion, students would choose from a list of animals who work together to help each other survive. They would research these animals and animal relationships and write a paragraph of factual information about them. Then, they would write a poetic conversation between the animals, similar to Sidman’s poem, illustrate them, and share them with the class.

Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and Robbin Gourley

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Bibliography:

VanDerwater, Amy L., and Robbin Gourley. Forest Has a Song. New York: Clarion Books, 2013. ISBN 9780618843497

Review and Critical Analysis:

Forest Has a Song is a collection of poems written from the perspective of a young girl who has spent some time in the forest. Her voice describes ever so eloquently all of the creatures and plants she see and hears on her visits into the forest. In many of the poems, the young girl speaks to the forest, or to a creature in the forest, and its reply is shown in italics. In this collection of poetry, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater captures the beautiful voice of the forest and lets it to sing its song to the reader.

The book begins with the poem “Invitation” in which the young girl tells what she heard today in the forest. The forest replies, “I’m here. / Come visit. / Please?” The forest’s invitation to the girl is also an invitation to the reader to come and visit the forest through the poems in the book. From there, the reader encounters a dead branch, a chickadee, a fossil, a tree frog, a spider, lichens, an owl, and much more.

The poems are filled with poetic elements - rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, personification, and imagery. Each poem is filled with imagery, inviting readers to experience the forest through them. “Forest News” says, “Foxes pass. / Deer run through. / Turkeys scratch / for hidden food. / Young raccoons / drink sips of creek. / Mouse and hawk / play hide-and-seek.” On and on and on the poem goes, describing how a newspaper would read if its subject was the forest.The owl in “First Flight” says, “FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP - WHOOOSH!” using onomatopoeia to describe the young owl’s flight. The poem “Squirrel” is filled with alliteration, saying “Surely / you have squirreled a store / of nuts / beneath this forest floor. / I will not tell / one single soul.” VanDerwater’s use of poetic elements is endless, and has great effect in capturing her audience’s attention and endearment for the forest.

Gourley’s watercolor illustrations are a beautiful complement to VanDerwater’s poems. The illustrations sometimes cover an entire page, and other times are simply above, below, or beside its poem. Her paintings tune the reader into the song of the forest, highlighting one aspect from each poem it is illustrating. Gourley truly captures the mood and feel of each poem with her simple paintings.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

Song

Under giant pines

I hear

a forest chorus

crisp and clear.

Winds whip.

Geese call.

Squirrels chase.

Leaves fall.

Trees creak.

Birds flap.

Deer run.

Twigs snap.

Silence in Forest

never lasts long.

Melody

is everywhere

mixing in

with piney air.

Forest has a song.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s poem, “Song,” really emcompasses all of the poems from this collection. It shows the beauty of the forest and highlights all of the sights and sounds that make its song. I would use this poem to introduce a science unit on nature. We would read it in preparation for a nature walk. I would introduce the poem by asking students what they see and hear when they walk through nature - through the woods or through a forest. I would ask how it makes them feel. Then, I would read “Song” to them. We would discuss the poem further. What were some of the sights and sounds the writer encountered? What was the mood of the poem?

Then, students would gather pencil and paper, and we would go on a nature walk. During the walk they would take notes about what they see and hear and how it makes them feel. Following the nature walk, students would use their notes to write their own nature poem, illustrate it, and present it to the class.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village By Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Bibliography:

Schlitz, Laura A., and Robert Byrd. Good Master! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2007. ISBN 9780763615789

Review and Critical Analysis:

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! is a collection of plays, written in poetic form, to tell the human story of survival during the Middle Ages. Following the “Contents” page, listing the titles of the 17 poems contained in the book, Laura Amy Schlitz included a Foreword explaining how the book came to be. At the school where she worked as a librarian, a group of students were studying the Middle Ages, and they were “going at it hammer and tongs.” They were doing projects, writing music, and creating manuscripts. Schlitz wanted to give them something to perform where each student had a big part - no small parts. Instead of writing one play for all of them to perform, she wrote 17 short plays, or monologues, to be performed. This book is a collection of those 17 short plays.

Following the Foreword is an illustrated two-page spread showing the setting for the plays - a medieval manor in England in 1255. Robert Byrd’s drawing of a medieval manor gives the reader a great sense of what life would have been like on a manor in England in 1255. He even labels each character to show where they would have been found on the manor. This illustration is an excellent guide during reading. Readers can refer back to it for each poem to get a visual idea of where the characters would be found. The book concludes with a lengthy bibliography, showing that Schlitz most definitely did her homework about life in the Middle Ages.

The poems in this book are beautifully written in a variety of styles. Some of them include a rhyme scheme, while others are written in free verse and come across much more like a story than a poem. Either way, the poems have an appeal to young people because they are written in the voice of young people. No Old English here. Readers will have no problem understanding what the characters are saying because they sound just like them. Schlitz creates a detailed profile for each character. Readers will be so interested in the character that they won’t realize how much factual information they are taking in at the same time. Schlitz does an excellent job of combining factual information with the real lives of these characters. Not only are the poems full of facts, but Schlitz also includes six two-page spreads of “A Little Background” for poems that need a bit more explanation. These include background information for the three-field system, the Crusades, and falconry - all subjects that young people may not know anything about.

The poems in this collection are also relatable to young people because the characters act much like they would. One of my favorite poems in the collection is “Barbary, The Mud Slinger.” Barbary is a young girl whose stepmother forces her to take her twin siblings with her to buy fish. The reader gets an immediate sense of the difficulty of Barbary’s life - a very young girl with so much responsibility. One her way to buy fish, Barbary sees Isobel, the lord’s daughter, beautifully dressed with her hair combed and her veil snow white and a servant to carry her basket. Barbary acts much like any adolescent in her difficult circumstances. She says, “I let go of the twin, / picked up a handful of / dung, filth, God-knows-what / and let fly. / Bull’s-eye.” Our of her envy, she throws a handful of mud at the lord’s daughter. Who wouldn’t enjoy the humor of Barbary’s story?

Robert Byrd’s drawings of each character give readers a visual glimpse into their life. At the beginning of each poem, the characters are shows doing what they are known for, whether it’s tending sheep or fighting a wild boar. Each page with “A Little Background” includes an illustration portraying its subject. Byrd’s illustrations definitely add to the imagery of the stories and characters portrayed in this book.

Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:

Giles, The Beggar

Good masters, sweet ladies!

I am Giles the beggar,

the best of my trade!

Behold my crushed foot!

The sight of the wound

would sicken your stomach, and soften your heart.

A penny? A farthing?

I grovel for mercy -

sometimes I manage real tears.

(It’s an art.)

No takers? No givers?

Not even a morsel?

Ah! They are stone to my pitiful cries.

And so I am left to my wits, which in fact

are prodigiously keen and surpassingly wise:

I enter a town, with my crutch and my cry:

“Food for the famished! Alms for the poor!”

I stagger, collapse in the dust of the road!

I swoon - too exhausted to go one step more -

and here comes my father! (But I do not know him.)

I lie by the roadside, starting to wail.

My father, the peddler, the dealer in relics:

“Ten pence for a thread from Saint Margaret’s veil!

Who covets the thumbnail of Martin of Tours?

Or this - better still - even this can be yours!

A flask of the healing holy water -

stand back, now - don’t push, don’t jostle -

flask of the sacred holy water

used on the feet of Saint James, Apostle!”

Sometimes they pay. More often they don’t

so he throws up his hands and he sighs - like that.

“Oh, ye of no faith! Before you, I swear

I will cure, here and now, this unfortunate brat!”

That’s my cue. So I whimper.

He opens the flask,

anoints me, while I seem to faint,

with the authentic holy water

used on the feet of the holy saint.

I swoon in his arms. Look upward! Cry out!

(Now see how the peasants step forward and gawk.)

“Angels! Apostles! I see them before me!”

I throw down my crutch, clasp my hands, and I walk!

(My father and I

rehearsed this for hours -

miracles have to look perfectly natural.)

“He walks! Praise God and His saints! He walks!”

If I do it just right,

the crowd gasps aloud -

they genuflect, weep,

stretch their hands out, and touch.

And while they are paying

for drops of that water,

I gather my bandages,

pick up my crutch.

My pantomime’s done

once the money is paid.

I creep out of town.

I feel guilt -

but not much.

Later my father

follows the highroad.

We meet, and he gives me

my supper, my pay:

bread or an apple,

cabbages, turnips -

sometimes there’s sausages

on a good day.

We sup by the road,

ask Our Lord to look after us:

“Send us more fools

for our food and our keep.

Forgive us our trespasses,

pardon our lies;

look after your foxes

as well as your sheep.”

I would introduce the poems in this book as part of a unit on the Middle Ages and medieval England. Students would already have gained background knowledge about medieval England and life on a medieval manor.

To introduce this poem, I would discuss the theme of adversity with students. We would discuss adversity in the Middle Ages - what kinds of adversity they encountered daily. I would read “Giles, The Beggar” out loud and then have them reread it on their own. I would ask them how the theme of adversity is shown in this poem. Together, we would make a list of the adversity Giles encounters, as well as evidence from the poem to support it.

Then, I would place students in groups and have them focus on an idea we have studied during our unit and create a character to portray it. Students will give their character a name, an occupation (or at least something they are known for on the manor), and create a brief description of him or her. Students would be welcome to write a poem for their character, but this would not be required.