Poetry Blog

A bad Case of the Giggles, is a poetry book by Bruce Lansky. Bruce Lansky made a compilation of poems by other author's, and he sectioned them off into nine sections. They are as follows: All about me, All in the family, Off to school we go, What's for dinner? Critters, Tall tales, Tongue twisters, Mixed up mother goose, and Time for bed. Those are the themes for the poems, so each poem in that section has to do with what section they're in. For most of the poems there is a picture, and all of the pictures depict something from the poem, so I thought that was pretty neat. The illustrations themselves are funny and add to the humor of the poems since the collection is called A bad Case of the Giggles. The images were illustrated by Stephen Carpenter and they look like they are pencil drawn pictures. I would definitely use this book in the class for enjoyment, I think it would be a good way to get the day started and to get them laughing. The genre of this book is poetry. The appropriate grade level for these poems would be first through fifth grade. One poem that I really liked was actually by Bruce Lansky titled "Oh, Woe Ith Me!" The poem is really funny because it is a little kid talking, but its as if he is tongue tied. Here is a line from the poem because I really do not know how to explain the way he speaks, "Ath I wath Biking" (Lansky line 1 page 3). For some reason when I read the poem out loud, I could not help but laugh. There are quite a few poem that could come in handy when teaching. One of them is the poem "Smart," by Shel Silverstein. This poem could be used when teaching math, since it is a poem about a child who gets a dollar from their dad. Then he swaps it for two quarters since two is more than one, and he swaps it until he gets four pennies. This could be useful when teaching students that just because two is more than one, the value of money is different. When it comes to the tongue twister section, those poems could be used when teaching children about alliteration. The book can be useful when teaching, but I think it is mostly for enjoyment. The book did not really have a cover but here is a picture of it.