My dog may be a genius by Jack Prelutsky
Greenwillow Books, 2008. ISBN 97006623862 3
(Ages 6-8) With over 50 books of poetry published, and the first
Children's Poet
Laureate in the USA, Jack Prelutsky has a deserved reputation for his
poems containing a lot of different word play. From the 4 line simple
play upon word sounds such as I thought I saw, where he uses the
letters, B, C, I and Y to make a rhyme, to the more complex poems
containing 32 lines of rhyming poetry about something silly like, I
often mow the bathtub, each poem is different and engagingly silly, and
sure to please lower primary students.
Not only will they amuse and attract younger readers, especially when
read aloud, they will form a basis for poems to be created in the
classroom, using some of this poems as a template for their own
work. I am climbing up a ladder, for example, has words going
from the cautious to the nervous to the plain scared the higher the
climber goes. I can imagine this being used as a template for other
poems about something a child may be doing. But whatever is done with
the poems, or however they are read in the classroom or at the library,
they are all fun, and the illustrations only increase the enjoyment
that smaller children will gain from this book.
Fran Knight