AROUND THE WORLD ON 80 LEGS by Amy Gibson

Poetry Tag continues with a book review of a new book of poetry connected to yesterday's book review.

Today’s tagline: More poems about all kinds of animals

Guest Reviewers: Mary Pharaoh and Melisa O’Rear

Featured Book: Gibson, Amy. 2011. Around the world on eighty legs: Animal poems. Ill. by Daniel Salmieri. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 9780439587556

Mary writes: Finally, after much technical difficulty...recorded and edited, added the images and loaded it to a faulty flash drive... twice... the camera battery died on me... this was a challenging assignment. I hope you like it. I am pretty proud of it. Here's my digital trailer.

Melisa writes: In Amy Gibson’s first book of poetry, she takes us skipping across the continents to explore five regions as we learn of the animal inhabitants, when added together, have a total of eighty legs. Gibson’s witty use of wordplay is impressive as she weaves bits of information about each animal throughout the short verses. The watercolor, gouache and colored-pencil illustrations by Daniel Salmieri continue the humor found throughout the brightly colored pages. In addition to the sixty poems featuring popular and lesser-known animals, there is a fantastic “Menagerie of Facts” located in the back. Here readers will find a list of animals in alphabetical order, a small picture of each animal along with one or two interesting facts. This would be a fun and entertaining book for young elementary age children. Here’s a sample poem:

Macaque
(muh-KAK)
by Amy Gibson

Most monkeys
like it hot, but not
the Japanese
macaque.
He lives in snow
where cold winds blow,
for fur runs
down his back.
But coats of fluff
are not enough
when winter is
a doozy.
And so he hurries
when it flurries
into the
Jacuzzi.

Connections
This 2011 poetry book is a great one for cross-curricular connections. I would use this book as an introduction for a science lesson on animals. Prior to beginning the research process on specific animals, this would allow students to see where many animals live as it cleverly categorizes the animals in their native habitats within geographic regions shown on the maps on the end pages. Sharing poems from the book might entice students to research animals that are lesser known. What a fun and fabulous way to broaden students’ learning. After students complete their research, have them write a poem about the animal they studied and display their poems in the library.

Tomorrow’s tagline: Poems about animals and what they eat

[And don’t forget to get your own copy of PoetryTagTime, an e-book with 30 poems, all connected, by 30 poets, and downloadable right now at Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app for your computer, iPad or phone. Just 99 cents. Spread the word.]

Image credit: PoetryTagTime;AmyGibson

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell and students © 2011. All rights reserved.