NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOK OF ANIMAL POETRY by J. Patrick Lewis

Bibliography

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2012. National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. ISBN 9781426310096

Critical Analysis

Lewis’ anthology is a must have for any science teacher’s collection. From a science perspective, it covers the whole range of animals and pairs incredible photographs of some animals that would most likely never be seen by many students. From a poetic standpoint, this book contains a multitude of poetic forms from simple rhymes to free verse with haiku and concrete form poems thrown in the mixture. The variety keeps the book interesting when looking at it as a whole. Animals are an enjoyable thing to study for most children and since this anthology contains such a wide variety of species, everyone can find something they enjoy.

The poems are not only well written from a poetic standpoint, but they are very informative. Some are very direct in their description, others will use figurative language such as metaphors to help the reader better understand and aspect of a certain animal. There are also a few animals that have multiple poems written about them, therefore multiple perspectives on the same topic that would lead to a great comparison.

The organization of the book is also interesting and unique. Instead of organizing it what I would think of as a more typical structure of animal type (such as mammal, fish, bird, etc…) Lewis grouped and organized the animals by more descriptive elements over scientific ones. He begins the books with poems about the beginning of animals’ lives and goes on to include animals grouped by size, loudness and strangeness, ending with poems more general in nature. I think students would have fun seeing which students he paired and discussing why he may have grouped them this way.

Example

This is a great book to use whenever animals are being talked about. It would make a great introduction to a unit about animals. It would make a great resource just to have available even when not using specific poems from it at the time. There are several poems that could also be paired with other stories or children’s books such as using the poem from this collection The City Mouse and the Garden Mouse and pairing it with a version of the story Town Mouse, Country Mouse.

I liked the poem Dressing Like a Snake by Georgia Heard. I would use this poem to introduce the concept of how different animals grow and change. Living in Texas and where snakes can be readily found, it would also be neat to bring in an actual snake skin to make a more direct connection.

Dressing Like a Snake

A snake changes its clothes
only twice a year. Beginning with its nose, peeling down to its toes: new clothes suddenly appear. Wouldn’t it be nice to dress only twice instead of each day of the year?