Poetry Book Aimed at ages 5-10: Falling Up by Shel Silverstein

 

Title:
Falling Up

Bibliographic Information:
Silverstein, S. (1996). Falling up. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Weekly Requirement:
Poetry Book for youth for K-5 students

Plot Description:

Falling Up is a hilarious book of poems by author and illustrator Shel Silverstein. The poems are all works of fiction from Silverstein’s imagination. The book includes over 100 poems and each one tells the story of an amusing situation kids will love, from the “Wastebasket Brother” to “Don the Dragon’s Birthday”. All of the poems are accompanied by witty illustrations, including Danny O’Dare the bear and the spoiled brat in a boilin’ vat. The poems’ rhymes are hysterical and will make children excited to see what hilarious poem is on the next page! It’s a great book for elementary school aged children!
 

Quantitative Reading Level:
Flesch Kincaid Grade Level 3.5

Qualitative Reading Analysis:
Falling Up is a text that includes several important elements of text complexity. Many of the poems use different types of figurative language. Alliteration is present poems such as "The Gnome, The Gnat, and the Gnu", "Mister Moody", and "Lyin' Larry". Several poems also use personification, including furniture that gets in a fight in the poem "Furniture Bash" and talking pigs in the poem "Little Pigs Treat". The narration of the poems varies. Many of the poems are from a first person point of view, such as the poem "Snowball" with a child who sleeps with a snowball in their pajamas. Others are from a third person perspective, such as "Glub-Glub" which tells the brief story of someone walking through a deep puddle. Many children also use their background knowledge from their personal lives to relate to the poems. Many of the poems deal with relationships children have with each other including family relationships like the ones in the poems "Remote-A-Dad", "Wastebasket Brother" and "My Sneaky Cousin", and classmate relationships such as "Screamin' Millie" and "Sharing".

Content Area:
English

Content Area Standard:
English Language Art

Curriculum Suggestion:
I would suggest this for the curriculum for students from first to third grade. I suggest that it be used as a read-aloud book for teachers to teach students about rhyme, alliteration, personification, and other poetic elements.

Personal Thoughts:
I chose this book as my required K-5 poetry book because I remember my teachers reading Shel Silverstein to me and my classmates in elementary school and how much we loved the poems! My classmates and I used to beg our teachers to read us poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic, we couldn't get enough of them! I think Shel Silverstein books are a great hook reluctant readers because the poems and the illustrations are so funny, and they are also a great way to teach children about rhyming!

Awards:
Golden Archer Award, Maine Student Book Award, ALA Booklist Editor's Choice, Parents' Choice Gold Award