1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Truesdell, Sue. 1992. AND THE GREEN GRASS GREW ALL AROUND: FOLK POETRY FROM EVERYONE. by Alvin Schwartz. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0060227583
2. PLOT SUMMARY
This anthology of folk poetry is broken into 15 subject areas featuring poems about: people, food, school, teases and taunts, wishes-and warnings, love and marriage, work, stories, nonsense, riddles, fun and games, rain and shine, a tree, animals and insects, and other things. These subject areas are listed in the Table of Contents in the front of the book.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Adults and children alike will enjoy reading the silly and strange poems in this book. Each poem tells of a hilarious incident or depicts a silly person or animal. The writing in this book of collected folk poetry is extremely funny. Lines such as "stare stare like a bear sitting in your underwear" and "the horse said 'Oops!' and fell of the flea and the flea said 'whoops, there's a horsey on me!' " will appeal to the sense of humor of children. Use of nonsense words that children will delight in repeating are widely used in this book such as "I with I wath a fith" and "higglety pigglety pop, the dog has eaten the mop."
This book is made for children to read alone, share with one another, or share with adults. Most of the poems have no need for an explanation because they are simple and easy to read. Many of the poems are sure to be familiar to children as well as adult readers. Poems such as "On Top of Spaghetti", and "Do Your Ears Hang Low" are well known to most children. In this book, these poems and some of the others come with sheet music which can be used to play or sing the poem. The silly black and white cartoon like illustrations add humor to the already humorous poems. The only poem in this anthology that is serious is titled "The Titanic" and tells the tale of that very sad happening.
Schwartz' introductions at the beginning of each chapter are entertaining as he states "There is one rhyme that makes it easier to wash dishes. And there is another that helps you sound like a fiddle." The chapter of riddles will surely be of interest to children as they try to solve them and then tell them to friends and family. At the end of the book there is a section titled "Notes" in which background information about folk poetry is given. There are also sections titled "Sources" and "Bibliography" where credit is given to those poems whose author or source is known along with a list of books of rhymes and games for children.
4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
Children's Literature: "Perhaps the best feature of the book, however, comes at the end where sources are provided for the rhymes. It is in this section that readers can see just how long some
of these rhymes have been with us and where they came from."
Parent Council Volume 7: "Add this book featuring over 250 folk poems to your poetry collection. Old and new folk sayings and poems are sure to delight and even inspire!"
5. CONNECTIONS
This anthology is a perfect way to get children interested in poetry.
*Other books by Alvin Schwartz:
Glen Rounds. A TWISTER OF TWISTS, A TANGLER OF TONGUES; TONGUE TWISTERS. ISBN 039731387x
Glen Rounds. CROSS YOUR FINGERS, SPIT IN YOUR HAT; SUPERSTITIONS AND OTHER BELIEFS. ISBN 0397315309
*Other books about folk poetry:
Root, Kimberly Bulcken. GRANNY, WILL YOUR DOG BITE AND OTHER MOUNTAIN RHYMES. ISBN 0874835607
Schwartz, Alvin. I SAW YOU IN THE BATHTUB, AND OTHER FOLK RHYMES. ISBN 0060252987
No comments:
Post a Comment