Module 9 – A Curious Collection of Cats
Summary
This is a poetry book that mainly focuses on concrete poems about cats and their personalities. Concrete poems are poems that arrange the words to fit a certain shape. It is very visual and allows the reader to understand the author’s expression through the text and the picture it’s words create. This poetry book has thirty-four poems that are centered around the strange behaviors and patterns of cats.
My Impression
I really enjoyed each of the poems. The poems were expressive with a wide array of fun and silly, serious and informative collected thoughts. The words and the pictures alike were bright colorful and I enjoyed turning the pages to see what Franco was going to write about cats next.
Library Setting
I would use the poem book to teach about concrete poetry. The students could write about their pet or make up a pet that they would like to have. They would then put the words into the shape of their pet to complete the concrete poem.
Reviews
Preschool-Grade 3. Words and pictures blend in these concrete poems about cats, written in forms that include haiku, limerick, and free verse. Once kids get the feel of how to follow the lines—up and down or in curving jumps or around the page borders––they will have fun with the playful images. One poem is in the shape of a feline tail. Another describes Kabob the cat’s fall upside down, and not only do the pictures show his movement, but the words do, too. When felines fight, the position of the words mirrors their furious screeches, howls, pouncing, and biting. Cat lovers will recognize the standoffs with arching backs, the cozy touch of the “purrfect” scarf on their shoulders, and the tech-savvy cat who walks across the keyboard to add her own note to an e-mail to a friend.
(2009, March 15). Booklist [Review of the poetry book A Curious Collection of Cats]. Retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=0d442aa0c5ee174bfe82ed22b6f7d215
In an ideal match of subject and form, poet Franco uses the sinuous shapes and playful motions of cats to distill the essence of felines in all their grace and ridiculousness. Each of the thirty-two concrete poems is a mini-depiction of a particular cat, as in "Veronica Goes Wide": "Veronica's gotten so pudgy / and PLUMP, / she now mostly acts like a snuggable / lump"; the poem is written across the yellow cat, with the M in lump formed from her ears. Cats interact with dogs, with squirrels, with one another, and with people in a variety of funny ways, but Franco uses words so precisely to capture cats' behavior that cat-lovers will feel a shock of recognition. Cat-haters may, too, as Franco lays bare the less-charming aspects of life with cats, as in "cat haiku 1" ("Tuna fish dinner / Kitty washes down her meal / sips from toilet bowl") and the self-explanatory "that cat peed on my hat." Wirtz's illustrations, monoprints adjusted in Adobe Photoshop, keep the words that wrap and weave around the cats readable while still creating visual interest in the backgrounds. Together, poet and artist convey the silliness of cats and their humans without ever being silly themselves.
(2009, May/June). Horn Book [Review of the poetry book A Curious Collection of Cats]. Retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=0d442aa0c5ee174bfe82ed22b6f7d215
Gr 3-6-Franco understands the nuanced world of the fluffy, fractious, and faithful feline friend. Thirty-two unusual, concrete poems, one per page with a single exception, are matched by Wertz's monoprints. The words move in several directions and sometimes inhabit multiple objects. The poems are so embedded within the illustrations that it is hard to imagine them without the artwork; they are virtually inseparable. In a print of a cat licking its neck, its exceptionally long tongue is created out of words. Readers following the poem will find they are forced to turn the book to the side, and may crane their own necks, experiencing an odd identification with the activity of the cat. The poem "Princess" uses arrows as part of the illustrated content to keep readers on the language path as "Princess paces down and up" awaiting her supper. At times, the path isn't obvious, but youngsters delight in solving puzzles, and these are merely little challenges that prove fun to master. In "Hot Daze," a red devilish arrow points to the poem's beginning. Among the various subjects are fat cats, shy cats, a kitty who "sips from toilet bowl," and a polydactyl cat with "poofy fur" and "prissy looks." Cat lovers will recognize their felines stretching, purring, and napping. This collection would pair nicely with Sharon Creech's Hate That Cat (HarperCollins, 2008).-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
(2009, April 1). School Library Journal [Review of the poetry book A Curious Collection of Cats]. Retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=0d442aa0c5ee174bfe82ed22b6f7d215
Module 9 – Stop Pretending
Summary
This book is written in novel verse form. It is from the perspective of a thirteen year old girl who is having trouble adjusting to life when her big sister has mental break down over the Christmas holidays. It is based on a true story about the author, Sonya Sones. When she was that age, one of her older sisters had a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized for a while. She began to journal a lot at that time to help her cope with what her family was going through. She later decided as an adult to share her memories of this event as a way to help other families who were dealing with the same or similar situations.
My Impression
This was my first verse novel to read. It is very easy to follow because even though each collection of thoughts was short, it was very expressive and flowed together to tell the full story. The author’s writing style enabled me to feel for the girl in the story and her family.
Library Setting
Students could tell about their summer vacation using a novel verse style of writing.
Their collection of thoughts would be titled like chapters and their could focus on just the content rather than worry about a strict format of writing.
Reviews
One Christmas eve, 13-year-old Cookie's big sister has a nervous breakdown: a wild-eyed Jewish girl wearing only a nightgown,” she rushes out the door to Midnight Mass. Following this manic moment, the sister is institutionalized. This haunting novel, told entirely in Cookie's first person poems, is the story of what happens in the wake of this emotional disaster. Some of it is heartbreakingly predictable—Cookie is terrified that she will have a breakdown, her former friends shun her, her parents’ marriage begins unraveling. But there are wonderful surprises, too: Cookie is introduced to photography and finds in it an opportunity to heal herself and her sister: a new boy comes to school, and he and Cookie fall in love. The poems—some as short as five lines, none longer than three pages—have a cumulative emotional power that creeps up on the reader, culminating in a moving, unexpected line or phrase: “I blink / and there you suddenly are / inhabiting your eyes again ... and Im feeling all lit up / like a jar filled / with a thousand fireflies.” Such small moments become large in the context of their promise of healing and the demonstration of life’s power to continue. Based on Sones’ own family experience, this novel-in-verse shows the capacity of poetry to record the personal and translate it into the universal.—Michael Cart
(1999, November 15). Booklist Starred [Review of the book Stop Pretending].
Retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=0d442aa0c5ee174bfe82ed22b6f7d215#anchor-review-award
An unpretentious, accessible book that could provide entry points for a discussion about mental illness—its stigma, its realities, and its effect on family members. Based on the journals Sones wrote at the age of 13 when her 19-year-old sister was hospitalized due to manic depression, the simply crafted but deeply felt poems reflect her thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams during that troubling time. In one poem, the narrator fears that “If I stay any longer / than an hou r/ ... I’ll see that my eyes / have turned into her eyes / my lips / have turned into her lips ...” She dreads having her friends learn of her sister’s illness. “If I told them that my sister’s nuts / they might act sympathetic / but behind my back / would everyone laugh?” and wonders what she could have done to prevent the breakdown. All of the emotions and feelings are here, the tightness in the teen’s chest when thinking about her sibling in the hospital, her grocery list of adjectives for mental illness, and the honest truth in the collection’s smallest poem, “I don’t want to see you. / I dread it. / There. / I've said it.” An insightful author’s note and brief list of organizations are included. —Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI
(1999, October 1). School Library Journal [Review of the book Stop Pretending].
Retrieved from http://www.titlewave.com/search?SID=0d442aa0c5ee174bfe82ed22b6f7d215#anchor-review-award
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