"Lovely Seasons"

Poetry for Young People

Written by Robert Frost
Edited by Gary Schmidt
Illustrated by Henri Sorensen

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company
Copyright: 1994
# of Pages: 48

This book is from about the 3rd grade up in grade reading level. This book is full of poems and for a genre is poetry.

Summary
This book talk all about the different seasons and has a handful of poems for each season. It is a great way to get students understanding the differences between seasons and familiarizing them with poetry.

Book Use
I would definitely use this book within my classroom because of how beneficial it would be for learning seasons. I would do an activity in the fall where the students would need to find their own leaf and bring it to class. From there, I would have them create a poem about the leaf or where it was found. By doing this it gives them different options as to what type of poem to write and only guiding them slightly to write a poem.

Rating System
                                     <3<3<3                   <3<3                        <3                           No <3

Rating System
Theme	If the theme is well developed and the message is portrayed very clearly.	The theme makes sense; however, it could be more developed.	The message is hard to find in the story and there isn’t much of a theme to go off of.	There isn’t a theme at all.
Plot	The plot is very well developed and everything flows smoothly.	The plot has a few gaps, but the story still is capable of moving along.	The plot has gaps that makes it hard to move the story along.	There is no plot in this book.
Characters	All the characters are developed well in the story.	There is more detail that could be added to the characters.	Characters are very poorly developed.	Characters aren’t developed at all.
Setting	The setting is described in detail and is necessary for the story to make sense.	The setting is described alright and still is needed to help the story make sense.	The setting is described alright, but it isn’t needed to help the story move along.	The setting provided is not necessary for the story to occur.
Illustrations	The illustrations are very detailed and help move the story along.	The illustrations are good, but don’t help the story move along.	The illustrations aren’t the best.	There are no meaningful illustrations at all.

Theme <3<3<3 - I thought that the themes found within this book were wonderful and very well described. The different seasons were well thought out as to what poems to put within them.

Plot <3 - There wasn't much of a plot other than the progression of the different seasons; however, the progression of the seasons did keep the book flowing smoothly.

Characters <3<3<3 - The few characters that were found in this book were well developed, along with a lot of the other objects that were acting as "main characters" within some of the poems.

Setting <3<3<3 - The setting and scenes that were used worked very well with the overarching idea of the season. All of the seasons made sense and were portrayed in a lovely manner.

Illustrations <3<3<3 - These illustrations were amazing to look at because all of them were done in water colors. These definitely added to the poems and the magnificence of the book.

I would definitely recommend this book to teachers of the lower grades because it is very helpful in teaching seasons alongside poetry!

"The World of Poetry"

Poetry for Young People

Written by Carl Sandburg
Edited by  Frances Schoonmaker Bolin
Illustrated by Steven Arcella

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company
Copyright: 1995
# of pages: 48 pages

This poetry book is good for grade levels 3 and up! It also follows the genre form of poetry because every page has at least one poem on it.

Summary
Take a trip around the world through poetry! There are many different stops that will be taken and all are quite unique. Don't pass up the opportunity to explore the world.

Book Use
I would love to use this book in my classroom because there are many things that can be taken out of this and taught. For example, it can teach students that not every poem needs to rhyme. A lot of these poems don't rhyme; however, they describe the topic of the poem wonderfully. This book also opens students up to a ton of different topics that they could write their own poems about. It is a good book for students who are having a hard time coming up with anything because there are so many simple topics that could be used.

Rating System
                                        <3<3<3                <3<3                        <3                         No <3

Rating System
Theme	If the theme is well developed and the message is portrayed very clearly.	The theme makes sense; however, it could be more developed.	The message is hard to find in the story and there isn’t much of a theme to go off of.	There isn’t a theme at all.
Plot	The plot is very well developed and everything flows smoothly.	The plot has a few gaps, but the story still is capable of moving along.	The plot has gaps that makes it hard to move the story along.	There is no plot in this book.
Characters	All the characters are developed well in the story.	There is more detail that could be added to the characters.	Characters are very poorly developed.	Characters aren’t developed at all.
Setting	The setting is described in detail and is necessary for the story to make sense.	The setting is described alright and still is needed to help the story make sense.	The setting is described alright, but it isn’t needed to help the story move along.	The setting provided is not necessary for the story to occur.
Illustrations	The illustrations are very detailed and help move the story along.	The illustrations are good, but don’t help the story move along.	The illustrations aren’t the best.	There are no meaningful illustrations at all.

Theme <3<3<3 - I thought the theme(s) of this book were really good and expanded well. All of the poems were well written and displayed multiple topics that could help students in different ways with poetry.

Plot <3 - I gave the plot a one because there wasn't really a story line other than through the poems it takes you around the world and shows different things throughout. 

Characters <3<3<3 - I gave the characters three hearts because in the poems that included people they were well described. Under this category I included objects as well because in some of the poems he personified things and they could be classified as the characters for that poem.

Setting <3<3<3 - I thought that the around the world setting was a really good idea and I thought that it was very interesting. It gets away from just simple household things, while getting students to explore the world around them.

Illustrations <3<3<3 - Illustrations were beautiful and really added to the poems. They made the poems much more real and easier to "see" as you are reading along.

Overall I think this is a great book to use with students when introducing and exploring poetry!