Genre 3- Messing Around on the Monkey Bars

Franco, Betsy. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2009.

ISBN: 978-0-7636-3174-1

PLOT SUMMARY

Messing Around on the Monkey Bars is a book of two voice poems about school children and their daily activities like recess, eating lunch, and riding the bus.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This book is a great example of poetry geared towards the classroom. Students can easily relate to. Many times poetry is “left out of the loop” because it has a boring reputation. Franco gives us a fun example of modern poetry. Also, because this is a book of two voice poems there is an opportunity for students to read aloud and increase fluency!

The illustrations are by Jesse Hartland. Hartland’s illustrations are very child-like. They seem as if a child had drawn them and were created with watercolors. A student could easily approach this book and have fun reading it. Another characteristic that I liked about this book is the guide found at the beginning of the story. As we have learned by reading Children’s Literature in Action, poetry has become very rare so having a guide that teaches students how to read two-voice poetry is a help accommodation! Each part is in a different font and the parts where both students read together is bolded. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars is a fun, educational book! Great for the classroom!

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

· School Library Journal vol. 55 iss. 11 p. 94 (c) 11/01/2009- “Teachers and librarians looking for readers' theater materials will be delighted with this collection”

CONNECTIONS

There are fantastic opportunities for figurative language lessons within this book. For example, students can work on onomatopoeia recognition.

After reading through the poems in this book, students could write their own poems about their everyday experiences at school!