A Writing Kind of Day [Hardcover]

Ralph Fletcher (Author), April Ward (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8–A young writer's daily experiences and concerns are folded into poems to which many readers can relate. For example, in "Bad Weather," the narrator presents a forecast for the school week, predicting "...a big term paper/due to arrive on Monday morning," followed by "intense…grammar drills" on Tuesday, the arrival of "the state writing test" on Wednesday,"…a high probability/of five-paragraph essays" on Thursday, and, finally, on Friday, "…some relief/when scattered poetry blows in." Varied in mood and tone, the offerings entertain as they celebrate words and language. A grandmother's "Memory Loss" is compared to crossing a river, as "She steps from word to word/until suddenly/she stops in the middle, disoriented." "Poetry" is described as a "sugar-crazed teenager/who just got a license/but refuses to follow/the rules of the road./…It embarrasses everyone/by telling the truth." What emerges is a picture of a young writer at work, looking closely at the world, making connections, and seeing the depth and beauty of everyday events and people. Ward's black-and-white illustrations use a variety of mediums, including pencil, photography, computer-generated images, and ink. Many aspiring poets will see the reflection of their own creative spirits and aspirations in this lovely collection.–Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 3-5. Like Fletcher's I Am Wings (1994) and Relatively Speaking (1999), this mock-autobiographical collection unpretentiously demonstrates how poems can transform the daily experiences of a child's life into dead-on truth bombs. "You can't write a poem / about a squished squirrel / my teacher insisted, / but I don't think that's true," observes Fletcher's endearing (and most likely male) narrator, who pens 27 primarily free-verse poems on many topics, from roadkill and Venus's-flytraps to weightier subjects such as a grandmother's senility. All subvert the notion that poetry requires lofty themes and rarified language; many satirize the dry, technical manner in which the genre is often taught, involving rote memorization of forms (which the narrator imagines getting munched by a poem-gobbler, whose ingestion of haiku, cinquains, and sonnets require "some onomatopoeia / to cure a case of diarrhea"). Some readers may wish for flashier visuals than the understated, black-and-white drawings and photos, but others will find inspiration here to declare, like Fletcher's confident young writer, that "poems are not extinct." Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Boyds Mills Press (April 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590782763
• ISBN-13: 978-1590782767
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #582,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ralph Fletcher is a friend of young writers and readers as well as writing teachers. He has written or co-authored many books for writing teachers includng Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, Teaching the Qualities of Writing, Lessons for the Writer's Notebook, Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices, and Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing. Ralph has worked with teachers around the U.S. and abroad, helping them find wiser ways of teaching writing.

Ralph's many books for students include picture books (Twilight Comes Twice, Hello Harvest Moon, and The Sandman), novels (Fig Pudding, Flying Solo, and Spider Boy), poetry (A Writing Kind of Day and Moving Day), and a memoir, Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid. His novel Uncle Daddy was awarded the Christopher medal in 2002. He has also written a popular series of books for young writers including Poetry Matters, Live Writing, and A Writer's Notebook. Ralph lives with his family in New Hampshire. He is a strong environmentalist who believes we all must work together to live in a more sustainable way. His other passions include travel, good food, dark chocolate, growing orchids, and sports.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars poems for guys, November 11, 2005

By 

Gwynne C. Spencer (Mancos, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Writing Kind of Day (Hardcover)

If you have a hard-hearted middle school boy who might be a poet, this book is just the thing to get them writing. Illustrations are terrific, the poems are funny, real, from the heart, not a sappy one in the batch. For teachers struggling to get boys to write poems, this will surely do the trick. Use it with Jack Prelutsky's new book, READ A RHYME WRITE A RHYME and you'll have the whole class turning out poems.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great poetry, August 18, 2008

By 

G&S Mommy (Oaks, PA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Writing Kind of Day (Hardcover)

My students loved the poetry in this book. Fun, serious, all types! Great for imagery!

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INCREDIBLE, September 27, 2004

By 

Anthony E. Mastropietro (new york city) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Writing Kind Of Day: Poems for Young Poets (Paperback)

thats the word that discribes the illustration in this book. it's a must buy!