Poetry by the Iguana, and Other Stories

Many people have unexpected gifts, and the Iguana surprised everyone by telling his view of the galaxy in poetry. Everyone but me, that is. I've always known he speaks in lyrics!

Hi! Zantippy Skiphop here! I tell the tales of my adventures in the galaxy with my friends! Iguana likes to stay in his Earth swamp, so his book got written while I was trapped in an extraterrestrial jail. Don't worry, I escaped, so we are all about to tell you lots more stories!
Love,
Zantippy

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Children's Book Week 2012



Look at the buildings as books, with bookmarks! I wonder who the snail is. And is that the Little Red Hen in the front? David Wiesner has mostly older classics in this poster he designed, but is that dragon Saphira? What a great parade!

My favourites are the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2, just because I am immensely loyal to Dr. Seuss. When I was studying Child Development, my Children's Literature teacher hated Dr. Seuss. She was offended by his playful combining of syllables, claiming it would confuse children who were learning to spell, or even first learning to speak. Maybe her love of rules and structure can be explained by the fact that she was a nun, but I've known other nuns who loved altering the normal rules for an imaginary universe. Maybe my teacher saw Dr. Seuss' stories as simple, silly rhymes, maybe even forced rhymes. I've definitely seen people wanting to make a poem out of something, and the first place they head for is a rhyme in the same meter and couplets as in Green Eggs and Ham. But that isn't what Dr. Seuss was doing. He created really fun nonsense which could only be told in nonsense, the rhymes and meter just followed. Yes, it's silly! The best kind of silly.

Even though I love tons of children's books, some written in a very complicated way for "older" readers, this week is all about Dr. Seuss to me.






4 comments:

  1. My kids and I love Dr. Seuss, too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's on my wish list to have his entire collection! But there are so many, so that gets expensive... :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. you may have your wish for all the books
    if you take a good look
    into a store that sells used books.


    not bad for on the spot rhyming, non?

    ReplyDelete
  4. :D Nice :D

    You are right, I should focus on used book stores! I used to love those stores but we don't have any around here that I've been able to find. Did you ever read a book called Mama Makes up Her Mind? The woman who wrote that would go on an annual trip around Florida to used book stores, so they must be around here somewhere.

    ReplyDelete

Please share your thoughts! If you post anonymously, you are welcome to, but no spam please! Thank you!