Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

This little gem teaches cooperation, theater and observing nature with anthropomorphic eyes, heart and fun. It is a great ice breaker for young and old. Even science teachers can increase interest and participation in entomology with these gentle 5-10 minute vignettes. Order two copies or plan to type out a few of the 14 poems (in 44 short pages). This is a Newberry Medal winner! I'd love to see and hear musical accompaniment, animated watercolor images or flowing skirt colors dance. The instructions are simple for even young readers. Practice, rehersal, SHOWTIME!

I'm a sixth grade teacher, and I have Poetry Cafe in my classroom every other weekend during the school year. Joyful Noise is a favorite of the kids in my class every year. It is always the poetry book the kids go for first when they are picking their poems for the week. They love the challenge of reading the poems fluently while still staying "on beat". The poems are beautifully written with rich vocabulary. I highly recommend this book.

Mesmorizing & magical. These poems are fun to read with kids ... for both kid and adult ... because the interplay of sounds is magical. And for the adults, there is deeper meaning to savor and be mesmorized by for long after the last page is turned. I read these with my kids over a decade ago, Just re-found the book and read them again with them a decade later and they smiled ear to ear at the memory of reading it together so long ago, and loved doing it again, but this time at a deeper level.

A real celebration of the insects. Fourteen neat poems - you can read just one side and enjoy the poems too if you don't have a partner onhand but listening to them read by two people is neat! Really great drawings throughout - obviously done by a nature lover. The poems are funny and at times like haiku too.

Here are fourteen poems about, of all things, bugs. Some may wonder at the subject matter; some may be disgusted. By the time you're done reading them, however, I'm sure you'll no longer feel that way.Speaking of fireflies, book lice, and honeybees, Fleischman shows the unique perspective of each. At times his poems are hilarious, with the worker ant complaining in time to the languid satisfaction of the queen; some are poignant enough to touch your heart and make you think twice about that caterpillar you shuddered at the other day.What makes these poems truly wonderful, however, is the fact that they are "for two voices". For full effect, they *must* be read aloud by two people, sometimes in chorus, sometimes speaking alone, and other times echoing each other. In such a manner, the already-delightful poetry becomes alive.

A human. ..........A bug. Quite different,we two ..........Quite different,we two, but now here we are ..........with a book to review. "Joyful Noise" ..........as it's called, is a beautiful book. ..........Whether human or insect, it's sure worth a look. Two voices, aloud, join in poems like these: ..........a story of booklice, and one about bees. So get with a friend and find out the joys that come out of making ..........A JOYFUL NOISE!