“A Poke In The I a collection of concrete poems”

A Poke In The I a collection of concrete poems
Selected by: Paul B. Janeczko

Illustrator: Chris Roschka

Genre: Poetry

Grade Level: 3^rd to 5^th grade

  Well, not really but you get the gist what concrete poems are about. Concrete poems or some of you may have known as shaped poems, are a kind of poems that take a shape of what the poem is about. For example, “Popsicle” by Joan Bransfield Graham. If the title of the poem is a popsicle, what do you think the poem shaped as? Yes, you guessed it. It is shaped like a popsicle. And there are more these sorts of poems that just makes you want to read them because they are fun and you can do a little head dance trying to follow the text. It is just awesome!

The book design is amazing. The dust cover shields the cover with its majestic red and contrasting blue color. But when you take off the dust cover, you will find that even the cover is colorful. Even the endpaper is interesting. It is an excerpt from the poem “Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe” by Helen Chasin. The text is enlarged and put on a faded yellow font that contrasts right out of the red background. Grabs your attention really well.

The illustration is another factor that one must buy and read this book to students. It is playful and incredible. The collage is a mixture of watercolor and different bits of fabrics that works really well and sometimes the illustrator uses bits of wallpaper as well.

Thoughts: