MOD 1: School Poetry

Bibliographic Data

Salas, Laura Purdie, and Steven Salerno. 2009. Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN: 9780618914883

Summary

Salas uses poetry to whimsically compare the elementary school students to the animals of the wilderness. Salerno complements with quirky paintings with several goofy Easter eggs for readers to find.

Critical Analysis

Poetic Elements

Salas uses animals to draw comparisons to school life. Readers find students described as bears, hogs, skunks, and more. Poems are short, at most four stanzas and all of them rhyme. Liberal use of metaphor and simile bring the whimsical associations to life. In Prickly the speaker equates her words to sharp quills of a porcupine. Onomatopoeia sprinkle the collection, but are simple words like pop and scratch. Visual imagery is the most frequent of the sense imagery. Text describes the scene as well as the illustrations. This is not a collection of great emotional impact.

Ducks In a Row deviates from the style of the rest of the poems. It is an example of acrostic poetry. The first letter of each line spells a word, in this case Ducklings.

Appeal

Salas poetic forms and types are appealing to young people. Salas comparisons coupled with Salerno’s bright illustrations are humorous. Illustrations depict children of many races increasing its appeal to diverse groups.

The theme of the book lies in the childhood experience of school. Students of public school will find it familiar. Many children learn about animals in school. The goofy comparisons are sure to pique the interest of animal lovers. Many of the works list actual characteristics of the animals, for example Nesting describes what an animal den is like. This title is great for introducing animal-related vocabulary.

My favorite appeal of this title is how it stimulates the readers’ imagination. Not only do the illustrations invite us to imagine ourselves as animals, but the poetry itself does as well. It would be a fun opportunity to pretend to act like animals.

Overall Quality

Consistency demonstrates an overall quality. Poems of Stampede are consistently goofy. They all have the same gimmick, students are like wild animals. Many of the poems provide information on wild animals although some fall short leaving something to be desired, for example, Turtleneck does not give any information on turtles.

Honestly this collection does not stimulate a variety of emotions. It is mostly a humor collection. Subject matter encompasses typical school situations such as studying, getting called on, and lunch. It is hardly sentimental.

Layout

This is a single poet collection absent of a table of contents and index; however the pages are numbered. Poems are not grouped, but appear to be in order by what chronologically occurs in a school day (lessons, lunch, recess, lessons, leaving). Each title is highlighted in a different color. The illustrator, Steven Salerno, paints vintage –inspired art using organic brush strokes. Textured bricks and grass fill large spaces. Salerno also uses shading and gradients. Subjects display hyperbolic features to appear like animals. They are goofy and intriguing.

Featured Poem

Blush

The whisper

spreads like

 fire or

flu.

“Someone has

a crush

on you!”

My cheeks burn

hot as a

sun-sharp

ray.

I’m a blazing

cardinal,

winging

away.

Poem Connections

All the poems feature an animal to draw a comparison. This poem uses the color of a cardinal to convey the colors of the subject’s blushing cheeks and also his prompt escape. Each student can take a poem. They can use a STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art, and math) worksheet to identify their animal. Then they can pair a nonfiction titles to find out a fact about this animal. Then they can write a journal style entry on the plausibility or their feelings about the comparison. They can also talk about what they liked about their poem. It would be ideal to remain less prescriptive on the reaction for the journal entry.