A Poem in Your Pocket

Reviewed by: Kathy George - Gray Public Library, Gray, Me , Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: September 13, 2015

Review

Poetry is so easy when our children are young with Mother Goose and the lyrics to songs, we enjoy poetry and so do they. As our children get older, for some reason, poetry gets hard, not fun, and we shy away from it, both reading it and listening to it. Margaret McNamara has taken some of the mystery out of poetry with this story about a girl who loves to learn and eager to write lots of poems for the poet who is coming to her class on Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day. Elinor and her class are gently instructed on the different types of poetry, haiku, concrete, acrostic, metaphors and similes, those that rhyme and those that don't. One of the things Elinor's teacher keeps reminding them is that "poetry is a messy business." As the day of the visit approaches, Elinor has nothing written because everything she has written is not perfect. this story gives lots of information of the types, the structure and the purpose of poetry wrapped in a simple story of "letting go of perfect." Classic Brian Karas illustrations add to the appeal of this book.

Overall Book Score: excellent