Module 3- New Poetry Book (A Stick is an Excellent Thing)

 (Credit)

Singer, Marilyn, A Stick is an Excellent Thing. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012.

Illustrations by LeUyen Pham

ISBN: 978-0-547-12493-3

This book is a collection of poems ‘celebrating outdoor play’. Singer created poetry based on games that children play outside like bubble blowing, jacks, first one out, and barrel rolling. My favorite aspect of this book is that it is relatable to students. Children are professionals at playing outside! I’m sure that reading a book about playing would be enjoyable to them. The author, Marilyn Singer, is a children’s author that has written a variety of children’s genre’s like biographies, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Some of her poetry works include: Follow Follow, A Strange Place to Call Home, and The Superhero’s Employment Agency.

Unlike Guyku, Singer lays her poetry out in different ways. Some poems are staggered down a page, some poems are in stanzas and some slant down the page. This really keeps the reader engaged in the poem. Every poem is immersed in the illustration of the page. Though the illustrations are gorgeous, they are sometimes distracting to the poetry.  The mood of all the poems read at all one level. Given, this is a book of poetry intended for children, but it lacks variety. I believe that imagination is not overly stimulated but may inspire students to play outdoors and try new games.

There are not a lot of text features in this book. A table of contents would be really beneficial given that there are more than fifteen poems in this book. There are headings which helps guide the reader through each poem. These really help the flow of each poem because they are a part of each picture it can sometimes be difficult to see when a new poem begins.

Overall, A Stick is an Excellent Thing is a book of poetry that offers familiar content for children to enjoy. I do think that some aspects could be added like a table of contents or a clearer space for the poems. I would add this to my collection.

Singer has created a book full of actions with A Stick is an Excellent Thing. I would love to introduce a poem and have students list verbs that I could think of about a certain activity. For example, using the poem Barreling:

This hill is small. The grass feels fluffy,

            Mama sayd in called a knoll.

We’re glad our clothes are old and scruffy,

            When we go down, we never stroll—

                        we roll!

Wonder how many VERBS (action words) we could list about rolling down a grass hill?