THE PROPER WAY TO MEET A HEDGEHOG: and Other How-To Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Richard Jones features 33 delightful poems on the theme of learning how to do something from April Halprin Wayland’s How To Ride A New Bike to Margarita
Engle’s How to Bird Watch and Basketball Rule #2 by Kwame Alexander.
How to Scare Monsters by Rebecca Kai Dotlich is full of practical wisdom such as keeping a light on, opening closets and making sure the monsters know you’re not afraid of them!
The illustrations, painted in soft colors and edited digitally, stand ready to pull the reader into and through each poem. Charles Ghigna’s How to Build a Poem is visually constructed with cranes and huge cement blocks with the letters P, O, E and M written on them. How to Tell a Camel by J. Patrick Lewis is visually shown by the artist by placing the B on its back revealing two humps for Bactrian and placing the D on its back revealing one hump for Dromedary. Much to enjoy here.
The illustration for Allan Wolf’s The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog, the signature poem captured on the book’s cover, shows a handsome hedgehog with knowing eyes looking mischievously at the reader.
THE PROPER WAY TO MEET A HEDGEHOG: and Other How-To Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Richard Jones is a fun-filled celebration of poetry to be shared with children 6-9 years of age (Candlewick Press, 2019).
Questions for The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems
What does Barbershop by Martin Gardner and Tired Hair by Douglas Florian have in common? Read them out loud and enjoy the following characteristics: subject matter, rhyme, stanza length, humor and surprising last line. Parents and Grandparents can help if needed.
The last poem in this book is How to Pay Attention by April Halprin Wayland. It asks the reader to do two things, namely, close the book and look. What does the poet want the reader to look at? If you close the book and look what would you see? Go ahead and look around. Now, draw a picture of what you see.
How to Bird Watch by Margarita Engle is identified as a Tanka poem. Have you ever heard of this form of Japanese poetry? It has 31 syllables usually arranged in five lines of 5,7,5,7,7. Tanka poems do not rhyme. They often express deep feelings for nature. The third line often notes a change in the depth or direction of that feeling. Read this poem out loud to experience the impact of its beauty. Now write your own Tanka about some aspect of nature that speaks to you. Go ahead. Try it. You don’t have to satisfy anyone but yourself.
