Animal Poems

Worth, V. (2007). Animal Poems. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Brief Annotation: Valerie Worth uses language to depict the behaviors and images of animals that are in depth and colorful. Her choice of animals depicted is unique in that most of them are uncommon to see in a children’s book. (Cockroach, Star-Nosed Mole, Minnows, Camel, etc.) This book would defiantly fall into the picture book category that is read to a child because the language is far more advanced than most children in the age range it is meant for.

Genre: Children’s Poetry

Grade Level: 4-8

Readers who will like this: Readers/listeners who are learning phonics would enjoy this book. There are many different phonemes and diphthongs found in this book to enhance literacy.
Response/Rating (1-4): *** I enjoyed reading this book, but if a child picked it up on their own, they would be very discouraged by the advanced vocabulary. There were defiantly sections of the book that I enjoyed more than others, like the Gorilla “Strong enough to Fear no Enemy; Feeding Serenely on Celery.”

One question you would ask before a read aloud: What is your favorite animal? Then I would ask again after we read the book, to see if it changed since there is such a wide range of animals in this book.