A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms

I bought this book for the children's section of my library. My niece loves it! It has sparked her interest in poetry so much that she is not only writing her own using the rules taught in the book for each form but she is also seeking out forms not included in the book! She has discovered that Tyger Tyger by William Blake is her favorite poem. I could not be more pleased with this book.

Every year Poetry Month comes along and every year there are children's librarians like myself who shudder at its approach. Poetry. It's not something that every person in the world is going to appreciate right off the bat. So, if you're like myself, you get out a bunch of poetry books, put them in an area labeled "POETRY MONTH SELECTIONS" and then desperately search the internet for further poetry-related activities you can hold in your branch. This year I decided I'd try to do some poetry with the homeschooler bookgroup I run. What I really wanted was to show the kids lots of books with different kinds of poetic styles in them. A collection of poetic forms, if you will. I couldn't find anything perfect, however, so I just chalked it up to there being too few useful poetry books for kids in this world. Then I attended the Children's Book Committee annual breakfast at the Bank Street College of Education. And the winner of the 2005 Claudia Lewis Award, as it happened, was "A Kick In the Head", as selected by Paul B. Janeczko. I was curious so I picked it up. And right then and there it hit me that THIS was the book I'd been so desperately searching for all this time. It's a truly interesting collection of poetic forms done in such a way that kids will not only understand them, but want to write some of their own. After I recovered from the shock I returned to my library and sure enough, lo and behold, there was the book sitting perkily on my shelf where it had always been. So parents, educators, and librarians, heed my warning. Discover "A Kick In the Head" for your own Poetry Months before it's too late. Don't make the same mistake I did. The book contains twenty-nine different poetic forms. Everything from your basic haikus and limericks to triolets, aubades, and pantoums. There are blues poems and clerihews, and even the rare riddle poem or two. Janeczko has culled the most amusing and child-friendly versions of these forms possible, and it works. For example, take the villanelle. You might not think it lends itself naturally to a child's reading, but then you see how cleverly Joan Bransfield Graham has created, "Is There a Villain In Your Villanelle?". And into this lively jumble we throw Chris Raschka's brightly colored mixed-media extravaganza. The result is a high-energy introduction to poetry in all its wild and wooly forms. A lovely amalgamation to say the least. None of this is to say that there wasn't an odd choice or two. For the "found poem", Janeczko reprints Georgia Heard's, "The Paper Trail". The poem is a beautiful list of different kinds of writing, and it soon becomes clear that these are the scraps of paper and floated to the ground when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. No mention of 9/11 is ever made, but you'd have to be pretty dense not to get the St. Paul's Cathedral reference. Fans of that old Cat Stevens song, "Morning Has Broken", will see it listed under the "aubade" section. And I, for on

This book is a wonderful tool if you are teaching poetry. It describes many different types of poetry with an example and a simple explanation. Very colorful pictures.

Paul Janeczko compiled this "Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms" with wonderful "asides" and editorial descriptions. It is definitely not "everyday-ish" /or/ for children only. The book is an absolute delight - and an eye-opener. OR, perhaps I should say *ear-opener* because all the sounds of these examples make music /or/ nonsense /or/ possibly dissonance. If you are, or have ever been an editor, read the epitaph on p.40! I've asked myself why this wasn't an alternate text in English Lit 101. (Obviously because it wasn't published that long ago.) Janeczko introduces us to twenty-nine forms of poetry, and divulges that poets don't always follow the rules. There are some really tricky forms (see ROUNDEL p. 22 & DOUBLE DACTYL p.25). The latter has an outstanding example by John Hollander, especially appropriate in February, the month of Presidential obeisance. It reveals that our 23rd President, a Hoosier :~) "didn't do much"? This is a book of lots & lots of smiles that call for sharing. The wildly unrestrained, splashy colors combine with collage for illustrations that are great fun. Artist Chris Raschka also illuminated the 2006 Caldecott medal-winning book. (isbn:076809140) As a writer of haiku & similar forms, Reviewer mcHAIKU found pages 14 - 18 of special interest. I never encountered haiku, senryu (which the author calls "HAIKU WITH AN ATTITUDE"), tanka or cinquain during my 'deprived' childhood but am happy now to make up for lost time. "This Book delights me: / It is dandelions puffed, / laughter loudly shared . . ."