First Food Fight This Fall by Marilyn Singer

First Food Fight This Fall by Marilyn Singer

                                         

 

1.      Bibliography

Singer, Marilyn. Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa.  First Food Fight This Fall and other School Poems. New York: Sterling, 2008 ISBN 1402741456.

2.      Plot Summary

A group of young children, who ride the school bus together, tell about what their school experience is like in poetry.  They follow the school year through from the first day, talking about the classes they love and the ones they don’t like so much, highlights of their year, first snow, field trips, class pictures, field day and finally the last day.  They share the everyday experiences such as cleaning erasers and trading lunches and the extra ordinary experiences like food fights and water fights. Each child takes turns telling the story from their point of view so that you can share the feelings and emotions of the event from different viewpoints.

3.      Critical Analysis

Each poem tells a piece of the story, throughout the school year and, in the voice of each different child.  The poems are in various styles including haiku, quatrain, acrostic, free verse and others and various tones.  The tone of poems such as First Day, First Food Fight This Fall or Field Day are joyous and exuberant.  While, poems such as Math or The Class I Hate are serious.  The tone and tenor of the poem Indoor Storm is serious, as if to show the remorse the children feel in the aftermath of the food fight.  Especially fun is the poem When Ms. Mundy Read Us a Poem.  It feels like an inside joke by the author to show she understands that readers all have different reactions to poetry.  By the end, you celebrate with the children as they move on to the summer knowing that they will rejoice in their summer activities.

The illustrations are in a cartoon style.  They are bright and done in acrylics, pastels and collage.  There is always a lot going on in the illustrations and children will enjoy finding each of the children in the picture to see what they are doing as the story unfolds.  Inside of the front cover, there is a “photograph” picture of each of the characters so as children read they will know who is telling the story and they can look for the characters throughout the book.  There is a table of contents of the poems to make it easy for the reader to find their favorites.

4.      Review Excerpts

Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best, 2009.

From Kirkus Review: The interesting combination of identifiable poetic forms and Yoshikawa’s amusing illustrations should make this a popular choice for classroom reading, as students recognize at least some of their own school experiences in the poetry.

From School Library Journal: The poems resonate with mischievous good cheer.  This collection will surely strike a familiar note with young readers.

From Booklist: Children will enjoy the poetry and find comparisons and contracts to situations in their daily routines.

5.      Connections

Gather and read other Marilyn Singer books such as:

      Tallulah’s Tutu. ISBN 0547173539
      Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems. ISBN 0525479015

Gather and read other children’s poetry books such as:

      Lewis, J. Patrick. National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. ISBN 1426310099
      Grimes, Nikki. One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance.  ISBN 1619635542
      Florian, Douglas. mammalabilia.  ISBN 0152050248

Gather and read other books about children’s experience at school, such as:

      Baer, Edith.  Illustrated by Steve Bjorkman. This is the Way We Go to School.  ISBN 0590431625
      Creech, Sharon.  Illustrated by Harry Bliss. A Fine, Fine School.  ISBN 0060007281

Read the Math poem during math, the Spelling poem during spelling, the Tag poem during physical education, the Science Fair poem during science, etc.

Use in a poetry unit to teach the various forms of poems.