New Poetry Book

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2013. World Rat Day: Poems about Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of. Ill. by Anna Raff. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN: 978-0-7636-5402-3

Book Review:

J. Patrick Lewis, a past Children’s Poet Laureate and winner of the NCTE Excellence in Children's Poetry Award, offers up an entertaining and whimsical collection of poems commemorating obscure national day observances in this recently published children’s poetry book, with charming ink line and wash illustrations by Anna Raff.  Most of the poems have simple rhymes in every line or every other line, a pattern which seem to be very popular in children’s poetry books; but Lewis plays with other poetic forms as well, such as concrete poetry and limericks.

 

Bat Appreciation Day on April 17^th is honored by Lewis with this opening: “Upside-down sleepers/Awakening in waves/Are Sweepers of Twilight/And Keepers of Caves."  One concrete poem, cleverly shaped like a flamingo is included for Pink Flamingo Day on May 29th, and a group of limericks delight on the page for Limerick Day, celebrated on May 12^th. 

Lewis also includes an abundance of word play in his poems, encouraging critical thinking in his audience. The poem for Ohio Sheep Day on July 14^th is simply one line: “No one will ever forget Ewe;” and National Skunk Day on June 14^th is commemorated by the words, “If the skunk did not exist/Then the skunk would not be mist.”  The Dragon Appreciation Day poem lists table manners for dragons and  begins with the words “At every meal, fold your wings and say “Graze.”

Raff’s anthropomorphic illustrations are full of eye-catching details to accompany the text, mostly animals with fun facial expressions and lots of active rats on most pages in honor of the World Rat Day book title.

Access feature include a table of contents listing the name of the holiday and the title of the poem to go along with it, but lacking the day of the year for reference, which is an unfortunate oversight.

Sharing the Poetry:

World Rat Day is a fun book on its own, parts of which could be read in a library story time with a national or world holiday theme.  Children could be encouraged to think up and illustrated their own quirky holiday.

In a school setting, a teacher might incorporate a daily list of nontraditional holidays on the white board from a website such as http://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html, which lists a plethora of obscure national holidays and observances, and read the accompanying poem from this book on its specific day.

Selected Poem:

My favorite poem in this collection is “A Thousand Baby Stars,” celebrating Firefly Day on April 10^th, for its imagery and the memories it evokes about catching fireflies:

A THOUSAND BABY STARS

When I was ten, I ran to catch

A baby star that leapt

Among the trees, a dime of light

I cupped and capped and kept.

How could I ever catch them all

As they were getting ready

To fire up a festival?

ELECTRIFIED CONFETTI.

(One unfortunate thing I noticed, however, is that there appears to be a typo in the book: the foregoing poem, “A Thousand Baby Stars” is listed correctly in the table of contents, but in the poem itself on page 12, the title is listed “A Thousand Baby Star."  I am sure this would be corrected in future editions).

References

Books in Print. n.d. World Rat Day. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|40756185|40312053&mc=USA# (accessed February 26, 2014).

Brownie Locks & The 3 Bears. n.d. 2014 National Days & Observances. http://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html (accessed February 26, 2014).