POETRY GENRE REVIEW-"SOUP FOR BREAKFAST"

Bibliography

Brown, Calef. 2008. Soup For Breakfast. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN 9780618916412

Plot Summary

Soup For Breakfast is a collection of creative short verse, fun poems that are thought provoking.  This book will engage children of all ages and  allow them to use their imagination and interest.  If you like Shel Silverstein, you'll love this author.  Calef Brown has humor, creativity and deep imaginative creation of words written in this book.  My favorite poems were, "Architots"(13) and "Painting on Toast" (22-23).

Critical Analysis

The illustrations starts at the beginning of the story.  The cover of the book has a soup can that has various images from the poems that gives insight as to what some of the poems might be about.  The pictures are so rich in color and texture-the illustrations are done in acrylic.  The illustrations add excitement to the pictures and they are so artistic.  Some of the poems follow rhyming patterns and some don't.  The language of these poems are to have fun and to hear what some words sound like and how it makes its own music-when you let the rhythm of words flow from your mouth.  Finally, I like that even though this is a book about poems he still has a purpose for this book.  At the end of the story author Calef Brown, states that he really does eat soup for breakfast and so does his wife.

Reviews Excerpts/Awards        

Winner of the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry

2007 CBCC Choice

Publisher's Weekly- "A hearty salute to eccentricity."

Booklist-"Words and pictures manage to be both clear and weird, an enjoyable mix."

Horn Book-"Silly it may be, but all the best kind, prompting the reader to see the world (slightly) askew and to delight in it."

Connections

-Read other books written by Calef Brown such as, Polkadots and Octopus Slacks, and Flamingos on the Roof: Poems and Paintings.

-Have students draw their own illustrations of what they saw when they read this poem.