Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry

Title: Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry

Author: Jack Prelutsky

Illustrator:  No author (computer generated images-small)

Publisher company:  Greenwillow books

Copyright date:  2008

Number of pages: 208
genre: poetry

     I chose this book because of the author, Jack Prelutsky.  I also chose this book because I wanted a way to introduce my child and nephews to writing poetry.  This was the perfect tool to start that introduction.  I have recently fallen in love Jack Prelutsky poems.  I wanted to share this love with my child.  He thinks that writing poetry is too hard to write.  This book served my purposes perfectly.  It is filled with a variety of poems on many different topics.  Before each poem he tells the reader where the idea for the poem came from and encourages readers to find ideas from their world and experiences.

     There are very few illustrations in this book.  The ones that I have seen are computer generated or done in pencil.  There is a considerable amount of negative space and the pictures are strategically placed to go with the poems being presented.  The writing is done in a very formal type of design. 

       This book is good for all readers.  Anyone trying to learn how to write poetry would benefit from the lessons being presented.  Additionally, the poems are good, strong poems for young readers.  This book would work well with early elementary school students to be introduced to the idea of writing about life experiences.  Also, t would work with older students to specifically focus on translating life experiences into poetry.  In one of his poems, Jack writes about performing science experiment.  This could be a simple way of showing students that science doesn’t have to be scary.  This book has not received any awards yet, but I bet it will eventually.