A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms

by Paul B Janeczko (Author) Chris Raschka (Illustrator)

A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

"Readers will have the good fortune to experience poetry as art, game, joke, list, song, story, statement, question, memory. A primer like no other." -- School Library Journal (starred review)

In this splendid and playful volume -- second of a trilogy -- an acclaimed creative team presents examples of twenty-nine poetic forms, demonstrating not only the (sometimes bendable) rules of poetry, but also the spirit that brings these forms to life. Featuring poems from the likes of Eleanor Farjeon (aubade), X. J. Kennedy (elegy), Ogden Nash (couplet), Liz Rosenberg (pantoum), and William Shakespeare, the sonnet king himself, A Kick in the Head perfectly illustrates Robert Frost's maxim that poetry without rules is like a tennis match without a net.

Back matter includes notes on poetic forms.

Select format:
Paperback
$9.99

Review quotes

Readers will have the good fortune to experience poetry as art, game, joke, list, song, story, statement, question, memory. A primer like no other.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

This is the introduction that will ignite enthusiasm. The airy spaces between the words and images will invite readers to find their own responses to the poems and encourage their interest in the underlying rules, which, Janeczko says, 'make poetry-like sports-more fun.'
—Booklist (starred review)

The title poem proclaims that 'poetry jumpstarts . . . imagination'; this book shows how that's done.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

Janeczko's disciplined but accessible examples, plus Raschka's spirited Asian-inspired images, add oomph to this joyful poetry lesson, sure to be welcomed by teachers and aspiring poets everywhere.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A beautiful, beautifully clear celebration of the discipline of poetry—and the possibilities offered by that discipline—this offering will find use both in the hands of eager poets and on the reference shelf.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Featured/recommended
—Parenting Press e-zine
Paul B Janeczko
Paul B. Janeczko (1945-2019) was a poet and teacher who edited numerous award-winning poetry anthologies for young people, including A Poke in the I, A Kick in the Head, A Foot in the Mouth, and The Death of the Hat, all of which were illustrated by Chris Raschka; Firefly July, illustrated by Melissa Sweet; and The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems, illustrated by Richard Jones. He also wrote Worlds Afire; Requiem: Poems of the Terezín Ghetto; Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing; Double Cross: Deception Techniques in War; The Dark Game: True Spy Stories from Invisible Ink to CIA Moles, a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults; and Secret Soldiers: How the U.S. Twenty-Third Special Troops Fooled the Nazis.

Hyewon Yum is the author and illustrator of several acclaimed books for children, including Mom, It's My First Day of Kindergarten!, for which she received the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award; This Is Our House; The Twins' Blanket; There Are No Scary Wolves; Last Night, and Saturday Is Swimming Day. She also illustrated A Piece of Home by Jeri Watts and I Am a Bird by Hope Lim. Hyewon Yum lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780763641320
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Candlewick Press (MA)
Publication date
March 20, 2009
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF042000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Poetry | General
JNF029010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Language Arts | Composition & Creative Writing
Library of Congress categories
-

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