MOD 2: Florian Poetry

Bibliographic Data and ISBN

Florian, Douglas. 2012. Poem Runs: Baseball Poems and Paintings. Boston: Harcourt Children's Books. ISBN: 9780547688381

Summary

Poem Runs is a collection of Douglas Florian’s poetry and art about baseball. Many of the poems highlight specific positions like first baseman.

Critical Analysis

Layout

Florian includes a table of contents highlighting Poem titles and page numbers. He chose to put the poems in a natural order, a mix of chronology and special order. The poem, “Warm Up,” fires up the list and “Season is Over” concludes the book. The end lacks additional notes from the author. It simply ends.

Poetic Elements

According to the description on the book jacket Florian is known for his wordplay. Although there is frequent rhyming homonyms are few. I recall one for “home” in “Poem Run.”

Florian’s style is heavy in repetition and rhyming. Perhaps this is a format he finds success in to appeal to children. “A Baseball” exemplifies repetition the best. Each line is rhythmically repetitive, all having two syllables. All lines also repeat the final word “it.” “First Baseman” repeats the full line, “First base is the worst base,” which also rhymes. Rhyming and repetition is good for those learning to read, as it is predictive. I think a storyteller could take advantage of this by pausing during reading to see if the audience will guess the next word.

Appeal

True to his appeal, Florian visually conveys meaning in his poetry by displaying the text as such. For example, in the poem “Warm Up” the line “bend to the right” is aligned to the right of the margin while the word “stretch” has spacing between each letter giving the appearance of a stretched out word.

Baseball is famously an American pastime. Children grow up watching and playing the sport whether at school, at the park, or on television. It is not frequent for poetry to be about sports so this is sure to draw and appeal to a different crowd.

Refreshingly Florian deliberately creates the collection to be gender neutral so it appeals to all children. Poems features females in text and illustration a number of times. “Our Slugger” prods at readers’ ideas of gender roles by surprising them with the final line.

The subject matter may be a challenge for those who do not already have a background in basic baseball knowledge. It is a good opportunity to build the slang and vocabulary associated with the game, words such as “slugger” and “stealing” bases.

This collection is specific to baseball and does not stimulate much beyond that. Florian is not only repetitive in his devices but going through each player’s perspective. In this way it lacks emotional depth and imagination, but it is forgivable as this is a light-hearted subject.

Overall Quality

Poems are consistent, not only is Florian’s signature style of repeating lines and rhyming schemes, but he standardly writes through all the baseball positions. Most of the players’ perspective are the same, arrogant voice boasting hyperbole in ability. “Right Fielder” is probably one of the few that rather hang out and pick flowers.

The theme of Poem Runs is baseball and the poems collectively reinforce that mission. Poems do not stimulate a variety of emotions, but steadily tread through the characters of the field. Instructors and librarians can take this opportunity to highlight sportsmanship in discussion and by reading other texts.

Final Thoughts

I consider this collection good for sporty readers especially those reluctant to enjoy poetry. To me I am left with something to be desired with this book alone. It would work well with supplemental materials, stories and activities, but I would not use it alone to highlight poetry or a baseball themed storytime.

Featured Poem

Catcher

I can catch curve balls.

I can catch heat.

I can catch sliders.

With glove or with feet.

I block with my belly.

I nab with my knees.

Throw me jars of jelly.

I’ll grab them with ease.

Throw screwballs.

Or two balls,

Brand-new balls-

I’ll snatch ‘em.

Throw low-balls,

Big snowballs, Or cannonballs-

I’ll catch ‘em!

Poem Connections

“Catcher” is told from the perspective of the catcher. Publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published a guide on poetry month (http://www.teachingbooks.net/media/pdf/HMH/PoetryKitMultipleTitles.pdf) suggesting the extension activity of creating poetry of other folks you would find at a game, like a fan or a vendor. Brainstorming these other characters can act as a jumping off point for discussion- who else is at a ball game? What do they do and say? Have students role play these parts in front of the class on a volunteer basis and let others guess whom they are. Then have them work individually to write their own poetry from the perspective of someone at a baseball game.