Connecting Books and Poetry

BOOK POEM

Book
Stead, Philip C.. A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Roaring Brook Press, 2010.
Illustrated by Erin E. Stead.
ISBN: 978-1-59643-402-8

Overview: A zookeeper Amos McGee follows the same morning routine when he gets to work, at the local zoo; finding time to visit his “good friends," the local inhabitants living in the zoo. Amos has a special relationship with each one of his friends which include: playing chess with the “thoughtful” elephant, racing the tortoise "who never lost," quietly keeping the shy penguin company, having a handkerchief ready for the runny-nosed rhino, and reading stories to the owl "who is afraid of the dark."

Poem
Hoberman, Mary Ann. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together. Little Brown, 2005.
Illustrated by Michael Emberley.
ISBN: 978-0-316-01316-1

Poem Review: This particular collection of poems is just teaming with rhyming poems that students of all ages can connect with. The poems are filled with many lessons about different kinds of friendships along with delightful illustrations. In fact, if you get a chance, you need to read the poem below, picture a cat trying to eat a mouse, and two “BIG DAWGS” protecting this mouse from the cat…. the cat is less than amused to say the least! The collection is arranged in a “Two Voice” styling, so that students could join in and act out or read like a reader’s theater.

Poem Excerpt: “The Big Cat”
Oh my, I spy
A great big cat!

A great big cat?
I don’t like that!

Run, mice, run!

Oh, good, the mice
Have got away!

Now, pussycat,
That isn’t nice.
You shouldn't’t scare
The little mice.

We know you want them
For your food
But eating mice
Is really rude.

It’s not a proper
Thing to do.
Why, what if someone
Gobbled you?

Think how sad
Your friends would feel
If you were eaten
For a meal

We’ll give you cream,
Your very own,
If you will leave
The mice alone.

And when you’re done
And full and fat,
We’ll find a book
About a cat,

A cat like you
With fluffy fur
Who laps up cream
And loves to purr

And lives inside
A little house
And never ever
Dines on mouse.

We both will read
The book to you.
(The mice can sit
And listen, too.)

Poem Introduction to Students:
After reading “A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” I was left with this deep emotional connection of the meaning of friendship, to the point that friends can almost be family. I wanted to find a poem that also reflected a deep connection of friendship, and “You Read to Me, and I’ll Read to You” has an assortment of poems relating to friendship. But what I like most about the book is the styling, as it can be read in a “Two Voice” couplet. And most important, the poems are written very simplistic so that younger aged students can read the poems without difficulty as well as older students and using the “Two Voice” style.
Once you have read both sets of books, you could do a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting friends in each. Extend the lesson into a “friendship” lesson on self and others.