Customer Reviews

A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms

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If you give a child but one book this year let it be "A Kick In The Head," an eye-popping introduction to poetic forms. Now, don't be put off by the term "poetic forms," the examples win both young readers and adults. Who can resist Ogden Nash's "In the world of mules, there are no rules."? (A couplet, of course).

Poet and teacher Paul B. Janeczko has included 29 poetic forms from haiku to a sonnet to an elegy. All are so thoughtfully chosen that one cannot suppress a smile or a catch in the throat. Among the authors represented are Shakespeare, Robert Service, Gary Soto, Georgia Heard, Richard Wilbur, the author himself, and, of course, everyone's favorite - anonymous.

Among these pleasurable pages readers may learn why there are 17 syllables in a haiku, and 14 lines in a sonnet. Closing pages hold further notes on the various forms. An excellent suggestion from the author is to first read the poem, then read the explanatory note at the bottom of the page, next read the poem again to see if you can detect how it follows the stated form.

Fairly bursting from the pages are Chris Raschka's watercolor, ink, and torn paper illustrations. Collage-like in appearance they capture the eye and couple perfectly with each poem.

"A Kick In the Head" is that rarity - a book to be enjoyed by both adults and children, and a joy to return to again and again.

- Gail Cooke

Every year Poetry Month comes along and every year there are children's librarians like myself who shudder at its approach. Poetry. It's not something that every person in the world is going to appreciate right off the bat. So, if you're like myself, you get out a bunch of poetry books, put them in an area labeled "POETRY MONTH SELECTIONS" and then desperately search the internet for further poetry-related activities you can hold in your branch. This year I decided I'd try to do some poetry with the homeschooler bookgroup I run. What I really wanted was to show the kids lots of books with different kinds of poetic styles in them. A collection of poetic forms, if you will. I couldn't find anything perfect, however, so I just chalked it up to there being too few useful poetry books for kids in this world. Then I attended the Children's Book Committee annual breakfast at the Bank Street College of Education. And the winner of the 2005 Claudia Lewis Award, as it happened, was "A Kick In the Head", as selected by Paul B. Janeczko. I was curious so I picked it up. And right then and there it hit me that THIS was the book I'd been so desperately searching for all this time. It's a truly interesting collection of poetic forms done in such a way that kids will not only understand them, but want to write some of their own. After I recovered from the shock I returned to my library and sure enough, lo and behold, there was the book sitting perkily on my shelf where it had always been. So parents, educators, and librarians, heed my warning. Discover "A Kick In the Head" for your own Poetry Months before it's too late. Don't make the same mistake I did.

The book contains twenty-nine different poetic forms. Everything from your basic haikus and limericks to triolets, aubades, and pantoums. There are blues poems and clerihews, and even the rare riddle poem or two. Janeczko has culled the most amusing and child-friendly versions of these forms possible, and it works. For example, take the villanelle. You might not think it lends itself naturally to a child's reading, but then you see how cleverly Joan Bransfield Graham has created, "Is There a Villain In Your Villanelle?". And into this lively jumble we throw Chris Raschka's brightly colored mixed-media extravaganza. The result is a high-energy introduction to poetry in all its wild and wooly forms. A lovely amalgamation to say the least.

None of this is to say that there wasn't an odd choice or two. For the "found poem", Janeczko reprints Georgia Heard's, "The Paper Trail". The poem is a beautiful list of different kinds of writing, and it soon becomes clear that these are the scraps of paper and floated to the ground when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. No mention of 9/11 is ever made, but you'd have to be pretty dense not to get the St. Paul's Cathedral reference. Fans of that old Cat Stevens song, "Morning Has Broken", will see it listed under the "aubade" section. And I, for one, had no idea that poem/song was written originally by classic children's author Eleanor Farjeon. Go figure.

I'm not normally a Raschka fan, by the way. Something about his images, I find off-putting. But I did enjoy a lot of what the artist decided to do here. For the "senryu" poem, for example, he was able to construct a month old cheese sandwich using only paper fibers of various orange, yellow, green (bleck!), and cream-colored shades. And if you think he had an easy job of this book then YOU try making an illustration for Shakespeare's "Sonnet Number Twelve". Even worse, make a picture for a poem imitating "Sonnet Number Twelve". It's doubly hard. So a tip of the hat to Raschka's efforts.

Now people are going to wonder what ages to hand this book to. I say, all. Obviously some of the poems, like the sonnets, aren't going to charm very small ones. But kids who like silly limericks or tankas that begin with words like, "Fish guts" will find their favorites in this selection. As for older kids, this book is useful well into high school. At that point the students will start appreciating the difficulty behind some of the more elaborate poems. A lovely addition to every library and I dare say a necessary one. No poetry section is complete without this book.

Paul Janeczko compiled this "Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms" with wonderful "asides" and editorial descriptions. It is definitely not "everyday-ish" /or/ for children only. The book is an absolute delight - and an eye-opener. OR, perhaps I should say *ear-opener* because all the sounds of these examples make music /or/ nonsense /or/ possibly dissonance. If you are, or have ever been an editor, read the epitaph on p.40!

I've asked myself why this wasn't an alternate text in English Lit 101. (Obviously because it wasn't published that long ago.) Janeczko introduces us to twenty-nine forms of poetry, and divulges that poets don't always follow the rules. There are some really tricky forms (see ROUNDEL p. 22 & DOUBLE DACTYL p.25). The latter has an outstanding example by John Hollander, especially appropriate in February, the month of Presidential obeisance. It reveals that our 23rd President, a Hoosier :~) "didn't do much"? This is a book of lots & lots of smiles that call for sharing. The wildly unrestrained, splashy colors combine with collage for illustrations that are great fun. Artist Chris Raschka also illuminated the 2006 Caldecott medal-winning book. (isbn:076809140)

As a writer of haiku & similar forms, Reviewer mcHAIKU found pages 14 - 18 of special interest. I never encountered haiku, senryu (which the author calls "HAIKU WITH AN ATTITUDE"), tanka or cinquain during my 'deprived' childhood but am happy now to make up for lost time.

"This Book delights me: / It is dandelions puffed, / laughter loudly shared . . ."

I was a little disappointed in this book. I had planned on using it in my classroom during a poetry study, but the subject matter of many of the poems was over the students heads. I would not recommend this book to primary teachers. Intermediate teachers might have more success with it.

I bought this book for the children's section of my library. My niece loves it! It has sparked her interest in poetry so much that she is not only writing her own using the rules taught in the book for each form but she is also seeking out forms not included in the book! She has discovered that Tyger Tyger by William Blake is her favorite poem. I could not be more pleased with this book.

This book is a wonderful tool if you are teaching poetry. It describes many different types of poetry with an example and a simple explanation. Very colorful pictures.

This book makes learning how to write poetry simple. It gives the name and definitions of various types of poetry and an example of each. I had a lot of fun reading this book. The types of poetry is useful information for anyone who wants to learn to write poetry, regardless of age.

The author in this book is careful to illuminate readers on the structures of the poems without letting the descriptions take away from the poetry itself. The beautiful pictures celebrate the poetry, and the overall work highlights the fact that structured poetry can be expressive and poignant. While there's nothing wrong with free and blank verse poetry (free verse is included in the book, too), many young writers seem to find structured poetry inhibiting. The author and illustrator of this book show that it can be a moving way to express yourself.

The levels of poetry differ greatly, making it appropriate for almost any grade. Teachers can choose particular poems to read from or teach, or they can offer the book to students during reading workshops.

Poems in twenty-nine distinct forms fill the pages of this unusual collection. Apt examples bring each form to life, from the simple couplet ("In the world of mules / There are no rules." Ogden Nash) and classic sonnet to contemporary forms such as blues, concrete, and "found" poems. Anthologist Paul Janeczko has selected poems that rhyme and poems that don't; silly poems, serious poems, and story poems; poems to share aloud and poems to savor alone.
Why care about poetic forms? Imagine baseball without bases or football without yardage markers. Just as rules make sports more enjoyable, so form enriches poetry. The examples offered in this collection make poetry accessible--and pleasing--to readers from middle grade through adult.
Chris Raschka's quirky illusstrations in watercolor, ink, and torn paper invite readers to linger on each page of the oversize picture book. Clever icons in the top corners of the pages give clues to the forms: for example, three birds on a line represent the tercet.
As a bonus, brief notes at the end of the book further explain how each form works. These pithy paragraphs will be helpful to budding poets eager to experiment with their own verse voices.
Highly recommended for elementary and middle-school students, A Kick in the Head offers a treat for readers of any age.

I love this book.
I'm a freelance writer and this gave me many creative ideas.