A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems

We borrowed this book from the library, and now I am purchasing it online. I found it interesting, but my daughter who is 8 is really captivated by it. I think it will help open the doors to the world of poetry for her.

Concrete poems force you to dance, shimmy, and shake when read. These are not poems that tiptoe around a subject. They stomp! They laugh out loud...and this laughter is contagious! I find myself going back to the book time and time again...just one more peek, I tell myself for the 37th time. This collection of poems is a language lover's dream! It is a juggler throwing words up in the air just to see how they come down again, only to be caught, and returned to the air.This is a book that will not allow you to sit still. Children will catch the excitement of poetry as well. May they run with it and have a blast!

Readers who state that concrete poetry is too advanced for children are unaware of how stilted that thinking is. If the children were writing the criticisms, you would surely get a different view.Poetry does not exist to be "gotten" (or understood) by it's readers, or pigeon-holed into one interpretation. Do not underestimate the capacity of a child to comprehend a poet's message. This book is a wonderful opportunity for children to learn to love and appreciate poetry. Children learn to write by using a combination of writing and drawing (driting). So this book is the perfect segway into a genre that many children never learn to appreciate, because it is force-fed to them from the beginning as something that has one purpose. They are led to believe the goal of reading poetry is to discover "the meaning," and in the process the joy is taken away. Maybe that is why so many adults cannot appreciate poetry. They do not know how. This thinking is not a way to promote literacy.If you want poems that are dumbed-down to meet what you think a child can appreciate about poetry at an early age, then do not buy this book.Otherwise, do your child an incredible favor and allow them to explore, at their own pace, this book and this genre.

Concrete poems are different from other poems, as the editor Mr. Janeczko notes at the beginning of "A Poke in the I". In many cases, the poems type font or the way it is laid out on the page determines the poem. Many of the poems take a specific shape in the way they're laid out on the page. For example, a beautiful poem called "Eskimo Pie" is in the shape of that frozen desert, with the words themselves forming the arched top and "stick". Some poems rotate around in spirals or take the shape of animals. Some poems leap around the page and it is the words themselves that show the action of the poem.While many poems could stand alone by themselves, Mr. Raschka has given them all additional illustrations. His illustration style of broad lines, bright colors and bold patterns in the manner of Eric Carle augments each poem beautifully whether it's about rain softly falling, a danelion blowing in the wind or two people watching a train go by.It is, of course, singularly difficult to review a book of this type because it's impossible to duplicate the exact layout of these poems which stretch, splish and splash across the pages. To put the poems into single lines stacked on top of one another in word-processor format would be to ruin them and take all the fun out of this splendid work. You therefore have to see them in all their glory on the page with Mr. Raschka's illustrations.I've used this book a few times in my own classroom to inspire students who are less than enthusiastic about writing poetry. Making concrete poetry (or "form poetry" as I called it in school) offers readers and students a different perspective on what is often considered a mundane form of writing. A lot of fun and highly recommended!

This poetry collection is tons of fun to read and a visual treat! The poems come alive with creative illustrations throughout the book. For example, in "Anyone Tennis?" the poem is arranged in 2 spread out pages so you read from the left page and bounce to the right one and then back to the left and so on---the way your eyes follow the ball in the tennis court! In "Merging Traffic" the letters merge into one lane---taking turns! The letters are driving! Words are transformed into birds and on their wings carry your dream toward the sky. Filled with wonderful surprises, it will delight even the most reluctant reader! A "must" on your child's reading list!