Module 14-Poetry and Story Collections

Dirty Laundry Pile

Janeczko, P. (2001). Dirty laundry pile. New York: Harper Collins.

 

Summary

This book is a collection of poems that are all written through the point of view of anything besides humans.  Shells, wind, scarecrows, snowflakes, kites, laundry piles, mosquitoes and more all get an opportunity to voice their thoughts and feelings.

 

Impression

This is a fun collection of poems that truly show how writing from another's point of view is very different.  It also illustrates how inanimate objects can have a point of view as well, and can get students to think what an object, like a shell, might see, hear, feel, or think.

 

Review

Gr. 3-6. As Janeczko explains in his introduction, this collection of 27 poems is "something like wearing a Halloween costume or playing a part in a school play," because the poems have all been written in the voice of an object or an animal--a seashell, a cat, a tree. The imaginative language is simple yet rich in image and metaphor. Madeleine Comora's "Roots" speaks volumes: "Roots like ours, course and strong / as a grandmother's fingers." Sometimes the poetry sparkles, sweeps us along, or makes us laugh, as in the title poem about dirty clothes by Marcy Barack Black: "Ignore me now / on the floor / By the door. / But you'll notice / when I swell / By my smell." There's great variety in poetic mood and form--brisk couplets, thoughtful haiku, funny concrete poems. In Peggy B. Levitt's "Mosquito's Song" the word punctureis spelled out vertically, letter by letter, ending, appropriately, in an exclamation point. Melissa Sweet's watercolors are light and airy, but never too slight. Some are full-page, some thumbnail size; and all are hugely appealing, whether dancing comically across the page or bordering the text. They'll draw children into words that resonate with joy and, sometimes, deeper meaning, words that will remind them that there's more than one way to experience the world.

Booklist. (2001). 97(16).

Library Use
1.  Writing lesson on point of view.
2. Concrete poetry lesson.