Soup for Breakfast, Poems and Pictures by Calef Brown

New York Times Best Selling Author Calef Brown created a collection of playful, short-verse poems and pictures in Soup for Breakfast. Starting with the cover page, the various images are pieced together in a collage-like form and are depicted on a soup can, giving the reader a glimpse into what the book will entail. The subject of poems are an ecletic mix along with the complimentary silly images and lines. Brown's somewhat "folk art" style of illustrations will surely have you laughing out loud at times.

In the poem titled, Grandpa's Mustache, the nonsense verse and rhyming scheme is portrayed full-heartedly within this 16 line poem:

"Grandpa has nose hair-/it really grows there. /It also makes him snore,/but grandma doesn't care./She can't hear./Too much ear hair."

The opposite page of the poem is a full-page illustration of Grandpa with his mustache, while on the right hand corner of the page where the poem is written is a smaller image of Grandma with her over-embellished eair hair. Brown also incorporates unexpected rhymes and strange puns. For example, in the poem titled One to Ten (and BACK AGAIN), Brown writes:

"Five, six, snap your fingers./Think of something weird./Noodles in a haystack./A baby with a beard.

Seven, Eight, clap your hands./Think of something silly,/Chickens popping bubble wrap./Statues eating chili.

Nine, Ten, tap your feet./Think of something fun:/Mulling over foolish whims./Counting back to One."

This poem radiates the imaginitative creation of words that poetry can encompass. The unexpected word choice reflects the idea of how writing poetry can include letting go of boundaries and having fun while doing it. And while there are the fair share of these quirky yet adventurous poems, Brown also incorporates poems that contain a certain seriousness.

"Go Forth, /Young Moth./It takes strength/to lift up and stay aloft/with wings so soft.

Brown's featured poem as well as the title of the collection, Soup for Breakfast, celebrates the idea of individualism and satisfaction of the speaker with eating this peculiar, yet satisfying bowl of soup int he morning.

"I like soup for breakfast./That's the way I am./I'm not a fan of toast and jam/or griddlecakes/with eggs and ham,/or even Cream of Wheat./A bowl of cream of broccoli,/now there's a morning treat./Coffee drinkers often scoff,/but I just laugh/and sip my broth.

At the end of the story on it's final endpaper, Brown admits that he truly does enjoy soup for breakfast, and does his wife, Anissa.
These are a few of the reviews at the back of the book that I found to perfectly highlight the book's purpose;

• "Silly it may be, but all the best kind, prompting the reader to see the world (slightly) askew and to delight in it." ~ Horn Book


• "Words and pictures manage to be both clear and weird, an enjoyable mix." - Booklist


• "The book celebrates language and wordplay with some real tongue-twisters, and the high-energy acryllic illustrations are just as engaging as the text. - Parents' Choice

Calef Brown has the distinct talent of writing and illustrating poems that allow readers to have fun with his humor, sarcasm, and witty undertones. Reading these poems aloud will surely have an audience's full attention, while inspiring those to bring out their own creatitivy and expression through their own poetry. I believe that sharing poetry colllections such as these will bring out your most reluctant readers and writers, while understanding the underlying message that not every poem falls into a particular mold, and that a distinguishable style sets a poem out from the rest.

Long Night Moon by Cynthia Rylant

The tradition of Native American moon-naming is beautifully portrayed in Rylant's Long Night Moon. Rylant's tribute to the naming of the moons was accurately and poetically versed on each page, with complementing illustrations of each month's phase. It seems as though both author and illustrator were clearly in tune with one another. Each written line, font color, and illustration worked so well together that it made the storyline flow very smoothly and rhymically. Rylant and Siegel's use of a circular plot is also found in Long Night Moon, while moving through each of the moon phases and seasons and demonstrating the growth of the mother and baby one year later.

An interesting resource that I found on students creating stories that contain circular plots is from www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/completing-circle-craft-circular-827.html. It is an excellent resource in instructing students to use the craft of a circular plot structure, while recommending books like Long Night Moon to incoporate in reading/writing workshop lessons. Here is a complete list of books that contain circular plots www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson827/Booklist.pdf

As I tried to determine just exactly what type of medium illustrator Mark Siegel chose, I found a

note the end of the book, surprisingly not from the author, but from Siegel himself. He states, "finding the right medium proved to be a challenge. I tried acrylics and then oils, but nothing came close to rendering the magic of Cynthia's words. Then I went outside. Over several months, I took many long walks by moonlight in the beautiful Rockefeller Farms, near Sleepy Hollow, New York. In my busy crowded life, I'd never given so much attention to moonlight: What is it like? How does it feel? What makes it so special? Eventually - and almost accidentally - charcoal revealed itself as the medium of choice. It returned me to that velvety mysterious light that softens everything, bathing nature in a dreamy luminosity. This dreamy luminosity appears in each full-page spread of dark blues, grays, black, and browns. His first-hand account of studying nature in this manner deeply impacted his ability to understand the moon phases, while gaining a further appreciation for what happens when the sun goes down.

Rylant's ability to capture the essence of the moon phases in such a way is breathtaking. Her words coupled with Siegels charcoal illustrations alter my perspective about nature and the magic that happens throughout the nighttime. Siegel states at the end of his note, "May the words and images of Long Night Moon offer a safe invitation to savor the night and celebrate its otherwise hidden wonders." I believe that although this story tells about the nighttime, children will find warmth, security, and beauty in the surroundings of moonlight.

Waiting to Waltz-A Childhood, Poems by Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant vividly captures her childhood memories and experiences of living in Beaver, West Virginia. The details of each poem create a personal viewpoint of Rylant's feelings and recollections of the past growing up in this small, rural town. While some poems in the collection have a positive tone, most reveal sentiments of moments that spoke of sadness, tragedy, and loss. Little Short Legs tells the sad story of how when Rylant's mother was late for work, she ran over a dog while driving fast down a dirt road - "never knew a grown up could make such a mistake. Never knew one could make it and say it was so and felt sorry. But she did." Rylant also conveys the realistic truth of how people cope with deal and how adults can still make mistakes even after "growing up," while relaying the importance of a person feeling remorse for her mistake.

PTA exhibits a feeling of disappointment (at first) then changing to Rylant's specific moment of being proud of her mom. "Seemed like everybody's mother went to PTA but mine." Because my mom was a nurse and they knew it, and she might never pop popcorn at halftime but she could sure save lives, boy." The transfer of feelings from being upset with her mother's inactivity in the parent program at school suddenly grows into Rylant's discovery of her mother's career and the impact that she makes on every day lives. The Brain Surgeon tells the story of a tragic loss of man that people know as one of the "town drunks." Later she comes to find that he is a brain surgeon whose wife died on their honeymoon night. "And now he sat beside Beaver Creek and would never leave it." Rylant also gives other accounts of individuals living in Beaver Falls and expresses them through each of her poems. This just goes to show how small of a town Beaver truly was and how everyone knew what was going on with one another.

While she comments about others, she also gives personal experiences and accounts of events that happen to her in her chidhood. In her poem, The Great Beyond, Rylant expresses how she nearly drowned in her friend Karen's swimming pool, "never telling anyone I didn't know how except in a hole not too deep...And no one ever knew, not even Karen, how close I'd come to the great beyond." This poem shows her as a child who took risks, not thinking about the consequences and moreso trying to be accepted by her friends and peers. The Spelling Bee also gives a personal perspective into Rylant's 3rd grade spelling contest. At first, Rylant is confident and secure in her success at the bee; until, she details the moment when she lost in the competition. I felt empathetic towards her at this point, knowing that she was truly hurting and disappointed in how she did not win the bee. In contrast, the poem Band Practice, expressed Rylant's persistence in effort leads to success. This can also be similar to how she found her identity as a writer, knowing that it will take practice in order to come up with a product that you are ultimately ready to share with others.

Illustrator Stephen Gammell adds to the realism portrayed in each poem. His pencil sketches are simple, yet reveal the simplistic, remote, quiet, yet natural setting of Beaver. The black and white coloring support the themes of tragedy, loss, disappointment, and seldom moments of happiness that Rylant recalls in her childhood. The images of people compliment the text, while seldomly revealing their facial expressions.

As I continue to read more books by Rylant, I am seeing certain consistencies in her writing. She has the inherit ability to express the sentiments, feelings, and experiences she's recalled from her past. Rylant commented in a recorded interview to the people of West Virginia, "If you're a serious writer, you write about things you are deeply moved by. And I think people are deeply moved by the same things I'm moved by. I just happen to be the one who was given the ability to put that swelling of the heart-that sweet reverence that you have those things around you or those people you live with-into some kind of language. And that seems to be my particular gift in this world." And what a gift she has - I feel after reading this poetry collection that I have visited the small, rural town of Beaver, West Virginia - and I clearly understand how much of an impact her childhood experiences impacted success as a writer.

Joyful Noise-Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman is a collection of poems that beautifully articulate the noises, actions, and appearances of the insects around us. While the poems are intended to be read aloud by two voices - recitors can speak simultaneously or alternate lines while bringing each poem to life with a musical tone. While reading this independently, I wondered whether his writing style for poetry consistently contains paired poetry recitations.
After reading, I found in a Q&A inteview session on his website. Fleischman was asked, "Why do you write poems with more than one voice? Fleischman's response: "If I could, I'd write music rather than books. Alas, I don't have that talent--but writing multi-voice poetry at least gives me a taste. Playing in a recorder consort in college led me toward those poems as well. I loved being part of a group. I've tried to bring that feeling of interplay and joyful collaboration into the poetry."

The emotions resonating throughout each poem in Joyful Noise vary - some sad, loud, quiet; however, each share a common characteristic as they make "booming, boisterous, joyful noise." Before reading the poetry collection, I thought to myself - Yuck! Poems about insects. However, as you read poem after poem the insects take on more of a human-like persona as you get to know their distinct personalities, habits, practices, and functions in our environment. This is constructed through personification and imagery. In the poem Fireflies, Fleischman describes them as "insect calligraphers, practicing penmanship, copying sentences." He also uses alliteration - "fireflies, flickering, flitting, flashing...glimmering, gleaming, glowing." A comparison using a similie, for example, is also demonstrated in the line, "Signing the June nights, as if they were paintings." All of these literary techniques aid in the overall rhythm, flow, and clarity in the content of the poem that also allows for the reader to visualize what is happening line by line.

One thing is for sure - you cannot get the same effect of reading this independently as you would with a partner, reciting it from beginning to end. So, I decided to listen to Joyful Noise on audio. And what a difference it made!! Narrators Melissa Hughes and Scott Snively recite each poem and with such energy and enthusiasm that bring these creepy, crawly creatures to life!

Illustrator Eric Beddows aids to the realistic adventure that the reader travels through while reading each poem. Each insect's composition, line, and shape add to its realistic form, while also creating a sense of movement on each page. Beddows also added a comical sense to the poems - for example, in the poem Honeybees, the queen bee is lounging on what looks like a chaise lounge, complementing the lines, "I'm up at dawn guarding, the hive's narrow entrance..."then I put in an hour making wax without two minutes' time to sit and still relax." This also compliments Fleischman's technique of personification.

Poetry is type of writing that expresses feelings. I believe that Fleischman did it an outstanding job in being able to capture the essence of each insect, while allowing for readers to explore and learn about their individual characteristics, purposes, and states of being. I gained a greater apprecitation for the subject matter as well as for the author. His literary techniques kept me interested and invested in his poems; in addition to the fluctuation of first to third-person narration without, you keep wondering what will happen next! Similar to Bull Run and Seedfolks, Fleischman interconnects his characters by giving their perspective, thoughts, and feelings.

I also feel that students would be highly interested in engaging in these poems as a reader's theatre or poem recitations, while also providing content area facts for science. The level of engagement provides a greater opportunity for students to maintain motivation and attention, while the rhythm and musicality make it a fun learning experience!