Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there is nothing offensive about this bouncy, personable collection of poems.
Families can pull out some of the action words by collecting the verbs in the book and using them to describe their own favorite exercise activities. Or they can act them out -- duck, dodge, slip, twist -- how does it feel to do them? Do the poems capture the action of real sports play? Then families can use those verbs to create their own poems, or they can get out art supplies and draw the actions.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Dawn Friedman
You don't have to love poetry to love this rollicking collection of sports poems. Prelutsky holds the Poetry Foundation's position of Children's Poet Laureate and with good reason. Kids who may think poetry is a pretty stodgy art form best left to their elders get a chance to see all that words can do.
Kids will identify with the athletes in the book. There are star players here who catch the fly ball, and others who are just happy to be out playing -- like the swimmer who swims "like a fish / That's been sick for a spell." These are kids who play for the love of the game and their enthusiasm, caught in Prelutsky's adept rhymes, will inspire the same in readers.
Raschka's watercolor and ink illustrations loop, leap, and fly about with his signature high-energy style. He does a remarkable job of creating vibrancy and action in a static medium and truly it's his pictures that make the book stand out.
From The Book
I'm waiting here in center field,
And getting really bored.
For no one hits a thing to me --
I feel a bit ignored.
Plot Summary:
This collection of poems captures the thrill, fun, and even the boredom of various sports.
Related Books:
Also by Jack Prelutsky:
Me I Am!
The Beauty of the Beast
Also Illustrated by Chris Raschka:
The Hello, Goodbye Window
Yo! Yes? (also written by Raschka)
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