Poetry for Children 5903-23
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Module 4 : Poetry Book Review

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Available at http://www.netaxs.com/~katz.Accessed July 18, 2005

Katz, Susan. 2004  A Revolutionary Field Trip :poems of  

      Colonial America. New York: Simon & Schuster Books

      of Young Readers.

 

In this collection of twenty poems children and teachers alike will enjoy taking an imaginary field trip through Colonial times. Mrs. Brown, who could be a Ms Frizzle look-alike, and is described as someone who/fills her pocket with pieces of eight/eats johnnycakes from a pewter plate. /dresses in petticoat,cap,and gown  --She’s the historical Mrs. Brown. The class marches through the reconstructed colonial village sampling all the different things to do as in the poem, learning what Colonial kids played, Rolling hoops, and flying kites, Ice skating , bird-nesting , snowball fights. The kids even try their luck at sampling unfamiliar dishes Whitpot, suppawn and Sally Lunn bread to name a few.

The illustrations are full paged and have an amusing side to them, even when paired with a serious poem like Signing the Declaration. In this poem, the children decide to draw pictures of themselves and hang them over the original signers of the Declaration Independence.

 

 

Katz uses a variety of poetic techniques in this collection, such as in the poem Grace Dips a Candle, in which the kids are making candles and she incorporates the metaphor the wax is bears grease.  Her use of onomatopoeia is present in the poem Muster Drum . The drum is calling; we all line up./  Rat a tat tat RAT TAT/  Breeches , kneesocks, buckles on shoes/ Rat a tat TAT. In the poem Pow wow  Katzs use of personification is present when she writes of, the heartbeat of mother earth /and / meadow grass waving/.

Free verse is written throughout the poem as in the final poem of the wild animals:

I believe that the trees remember

Wolverines ,catamounts, black bear, wolves,

A cougar’s high, quavering scream,

The soft padding of lynx’s paws.

 

Wolverines , catamounts, black bears, wolves.

Behind the log cabin, the woods are thick.

The soft padding of lynx’s paws

Shivers the leaves, shivers me.

 

Behind the log cabin, the woods are thick.

A cougar’s high, quavering scream

Shivers the leaves, shivers me.

I believe that the trees remember.

 

The endpapers are maps of the 13 original colonies and the Eastern Native Tribes and Nations of North America.  Also provided is a glossy of terms used by both the British Colonies and the Native Tribes and Nations. Children will enjoy this field trip it’s one that that they can relieve over and over again as in the last line of the poem History, “Hand me my notebook; where’s my pen?

I’m ready to go back again!

 

From School Library journal

Young readers will absorb much of the characters' excitement about history from this worthwhile offering.–Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Available from http://ipac.librarypoint.org. Accessed July 14, 2005.

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