Free Choice Poetry

Katz, Susan. 2012. The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub: Poems about the Presidents. Ill. by Robert Neubecker. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISNB: 978-0-547-18221-6.

Book Review:

I didn’t realize what a challenge it would be to pick a “free poetry book choice” for the last book in this class!  I now have so many favorite authors and types of poetry I enjoy that I had to narrow down many, many choices.  After some reflection, I realized that the children’s poetry books I have most enjoyed were those that involved humor and included interesting facts and information. 

Susan Katz’ The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub fits the bill as a humorous informational book.  The author has written a poem about each president and includes well researched information at the bottom of each page further explaining the facts set forth in the poem.  Using a variety of poetic forms (free verse, concrete, couplets, quatrain, list) Katz keeps the reader entertained with fun and unusual facts about our country’s leaders. 

Who knew that John Adams wanted to be referred to as “His Majesty, the President” (and instead was called “His Rotundity” by his opponents: “Though Adams bewailed this embarrassing fate,/at least his new title carried some weight.”); that Andrew Jackson was a terrible speller; that the term “OK” became popular from Martin Van Buren’s nickname “Old Kinderhook;” and that Gerald Ford’s real name was Leslie Lynch King, Junior? (“Without that change,/one of America’s presidents/would have been a King”). This collection is filled with much more little known facts that will be sure to please young readers (and old ones, too)!

Not all of the poems are winners, however, with some showing awkward word choice and pacing that is a little off.  A few of the poems, too, just weren’t that funny. (This is confirmed by the author in her bio in which she also stated that more research went into this book than all her others put together). 

Access features include a table of contents which shows the poems written in chronological order by president, and a “Presidential Notes and Quotes” section at the back of the book that gives the presidents’ years in office, dates of birth and death, a quote from each and a quick fact about each one. A bibliography would have been beneficial, however, and given the book more accuracy.

Robert Neubecker’s digitally colored ink drawings, which reflect caricature images of the presidents, add visual interest to the collection and complement the sly humor of author’s poems. The illustrations are spread cleverly across the pages, smoothly balancing the text, white space and drawings.

Sharing the Poetry:

Perfect for a President’s Day or election-themed unit, this book could be used to take a break from more serious study of the presidents.  Students could also use one of the poems as a starting point for more research into a president of choice for a short biography assignment.

Selected Poem:

Though it’s a mouthful, I really enjoyed the accomplished and accurate alliteration used by the author in the poem about Warren G. Harding, 1921-23. 

“Would You Repeat That?”

Always an admirer of alliteration,

Harding hardly ever halted his habit of haranguing

crowds by constantly copying compatible consonants.

This pretentious passion for pompous palaver produced

a superfluity of sonorous syllables, sounding spectacular

except that nobody ever knew what he said.

References

Books in Print. n.d. The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub: Poems about the Presidents. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:3959/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|34026575|33190329&mc=USA# (accessed May 1, 2014).