Irene Gach Lá

BIBLIOGRAPHY Singer, Marilyn. 2001. Monster museum Ill. By Gris Grimly. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0-7868-0520-X (trade) PLOT SUMMARY This zany poetic anthology invites kids to trail behind an undead museum docent. Grimly’s introductory illustration has a human class, complete with school uniforms, meeting the docent. They travel through the Monster Museum and meet all the spooky creatures kids adore, including Count Dracula, King Kong and even Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Along the way, Singer exposes kids to a variety of poetic forms. At the end, there is even a fun-filled “Glos-scary” giving the history of each of the creatures featured.  CRITICAL ANALYSIS This book is pure fun. The titled “Monster Museum” poem kicks off the anthology. Then, Singer’s catchy rhythms, repetitions and layouts whisk the reader away. For an example, look to “Man-eating Plants”: Man-eating plants, Man-eating plants,        ...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Sidman, Joyce. 2010. Dark Emperor and other poems of the night Ill. By Rick Allen. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. ISBN 978-0-547-15228-8 PLOT SUMMARY This poetic anthology combines poetry and science. Sidman explores the nocturnal world through poems describing various living organisms, from the mushroom to the oak tree to the owl, and how they thrive, or survive, the night world. Each poem is paired with a nonfiction prose, so the reader is brought into the drama of the night with poetry, but conceptual understanding is supported with prose. As an illustrator, Rick Allen uses dark and bold colors to draw your eyes into the picture and each specific poem’s theme. There are twelve poems altogether. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Sidman and Allen are a poetic force in this anthology. The layout of the book is simple to follow. Each poetic theme is a double-page spread. The poem is on the left, and the nonfiction prose on the right. There is a minor illust...

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hemphill, Stephanie. 2010. WICKED GIRLS: A NOVEL OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS. NewYork: HarperCollins Children’s Books. ISBN 978-0-06-185328-9  Hemphill, Stephanie. Read by Stina Nielsen, Michal Friedman, Celeste Ciulla, and Barbara Caruso. 2011. WICKED GIRLS: A NOVEL OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS. Recorded Books. CD. ISBN 978-1-46-181805-2 PLOT SUMMARY Award winning novelist, Stephanie Hemphill, has brought us a fictionalized version of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, including WICKED GIRLS very own queen bee, Ann Putnam, Jr. Hemphill writes from the the minds of three girls involved in the accusations, Ann (12 years old), Mercy Lewis (17) and Margaret Walcott (17), hence the story unfolds from their points of view. One particular male character, Isaac, is a cringe-worthy bad boy of the late 1600’s. Readers will love to hate him, although the girls’ behavior eclipses the misdeeds of this resident bad boy. The novel leaves you to wonder, Just how far would I...