1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Florian, Douglar. beast feast. Singapore: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-15-295178-4
2. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In this playful collection of short poems for young children, Florian plays with different rhythm, rhyme and age appropriate language to create a fun and engaging experience for the readers. The poems range from short and sweet to some that are a bit longer with more details, as it paints an image for the target audience about the animal it is describing. Florian's watercolor illustrations are simple and portrayed as paintings in a frame that compliments the color of the animals. Though one might think the illustrations may take away from the poetry itself, by filling a whole page next to the text, it is the carefully selected words and their placement that steal the show.
The black text surrounded by white space especially draws the reader's attention to the text, as its placement changes throughout the book to enhance the experience. For example, in The Sloth, the word "p a u s e" is written with spaces to symbolize the lack of movement. Throughout the book, one will find words that are written in "Oversized" font, with CAPITAL letters, diagonally, and even upside down for emphasis. Not only does Florian play with font sizes and placement, but he also introduces a play on words with text such as "Walrusty", "rhearranged", kangaroom" and "There's moa and moa and moa and moa". In addition, Florian strategically chooses to place page numbers in the middle of the page, rather than the corner, to draw the reader's attention to the next page.
This humorous interpretation of animals, through carefully thought out and placed words, with different rhyme patterns, flows beautifully off the tongue as a fun read aloud for kids. It is written in such a manner that will have kids engaged from the very first page, and the table of contents in the beginning of the book will help children go back to their favorite poems to read it "moa and moa and moa and moa".
The black text surrounded by white space especially draws the reader's attention to the text, as its placement changes throughout the book to enhance the experience. For example, in The Sloth, the word "p a u s e" is written with spaces to symbolize the lack of movement. Throughout the book, one will find words that are written in "Oversized" font, with CAPITAL letters, diagonally, and even upside down for emphasis. Not only does Florian play with font sizes and placement, but he also introduces a play on words with text such as "Walrusty", "rhearranged", kangaroom" and "There's moa and moa and moa and moa". In addition, Florian strategically chooses to place page numbers in the middle of the page, rather than the corner, to draw the reader's attention to the next page.
This humorous interpretation of animals, through carefully thought out and placed words, with different rhyme patterns, flows beautifully off the tongue as a fun read aloud for kids. It is written in such a manner that will have kids engaged from the very first page, and the table of contents in the beginning of the book will help children go back to their favorite poems to read it "moa and moa and moa and moa".
3. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
From Publishers Weekly: “Florian ( Monster Motel ; Vegetable Garden ) indeed presents a feast--for the eyes and the ears--in this cheerful collection of brief, bouncy poems describing an eclectic roundup of animals.”
From Booklist: “Twenty-one animals are each the subject of both a watercolor painting and a poem. Brief and largely humorous, the poems often make rhymes or puns with the animals' names.”
From School Library Journal: “This collection is an uncluttered, short presentation by an author/illustrator who knows what children will find funny-add to that the bonus of factual information tucked into each poem, and the result is a winner. It's easy to imagine readers becoming inspired to write and illustrate their own poems after spending time with Florian. Clearly a wonderful book.”
From The Kirkus Reviews: “A frequent picture-book author-illustrator offers 21 snappy poems about animals, each depicted in a square, dynamically composed watercolor. The succinctly phrased verse is fresh, occasionally whimsical, and witty with wordplay and puns.”
ALA Notable Book Award
1995 Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award
NCTE - CBC Notable Language Arts Book
4. CONNECTIONS
From School Library Journal: “This collection is an uncluttered, short presentation by an author/illustrator who knows what children will find funny-add to that the bonus of factual information tucked into each poem, and the result is a winner. It's easy to imagine readers becoming inspired to write and illustrate their own poems after spending time with Florian. Clearly a wonderful book.”
From The Kirkus Reviews: “A frequent picture-book author-illustrator offers 21 snappy poems about animals, each depicted in a square, dynamically composed watercolor. The succinctly phrased verse is fresh, occasionally whimsical, and witty with wordplay and puns.”
ALA Notable Book Award
1995 Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award
NCTE - CBC Notable Language Arts Book
4. CONNECTIONS
Gather other children's poetry books about animals:
• Whipple, Laura. Eric Carle's Animals Animals. ISBN 0698118553
• Elliott, David. In the Wild. ISBN 0439915015
Gather other Douglas Florian poetry books to read such as:
• Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings . ISBN 978-0152053727
• Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings . ISBN 978-1416979784
• lizards, frogs, and polliwogs. ISBN 978-0152052485
Lesson Ideas:
Use in a lesson to introduce adjectives
Use to review rhyming words
Use as a listening activity - have students listen to one of the poems and illustrate what they believe the animal looks like, just from what they have heard
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