I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices

We are a homeschool family with two students fourth grade and kindergarten-and-a-half. I ordered this and the author's other for two voices to promote an appreciation for poetry in all of us, but also to make reading look more appealing than it does to my younger student. It's working! I'm lazy. When I read poetry, I skip reading aloud for enjoyment, because it takes more time. Believing myself to be very busy, a conceit --since my days have as many hours as everyone else's, I also frequently fall into the trap of having only 'necessary' conversation with my children. Reading and rehearsing (yes, it takes a bit to learn to read them correctly) these poems engages us all socially. My oldest daughter and I are beginning music students, so I'm hoping this will help 'wire' our brains for ensemble performance. (But enough about us!) We've also enjoyed the content of both books--both words and pictures. Hope that helps.

The poems in this book are meant to be read aloud by two different people. Each person reads one of the two columns aloud and lines written on the same line are said simultaneously. This volume contains poems about birds. My 9 year old son, who doesn't like to read out loud, loves to say these poems with me. It takes a couple of readings to get the cadence right, so this becomes a wonderful way to work on diction while having a tremendous amount of fun.