A Pizza the Size of the Sun
Poems by: Jack Prelutsky
Drawings by: James Stevenson
Published: 1994
A Pizza the Size of the Sun is a collection of witty poems and drawings sure to make the kid inside of everyone laugh. Jack Prelutsky creative voice and humorous stories of grocery stores that sell eyeballs, two very unfortunate porcupines, an adventure of halves, opossums foolery, and fummawummalummazumms are the perfect combination of silly and and joy that everyone needs a little bit of in their lives.
To really understand my reaction to this anthology, I should tell the story of how I came to review it. I had every intention of finding a collection of poems for children with at least a few of Emily Dickinson's so that I could tell the story of how my best friend (now a wonderful writer and extremely fair person) more-or-less plagiarized one of her poems in 4th grade. However, I got to the poetry section of the children's library and found this book. My first thought was that Shel Silverstein had a new poetry collection, and I was beside myself. However, upon further reflection it was apparent that the poems had a slightly different voice and the illustrations weren't quite the same. It was a similar type of anthology (and there were more) to a collection that I fell in love with as a third grader, and I was in heaven, and have subsequently spent a bit too much time lost in the rhyming humor and absurdity.
Three of my favorite poems are "I Made a Perpetual Motion Machine," (p. 40), "We're Loudies," (p. 140), and "I Think My Computer is Crazy," (p. 56). "I Made a Perpetual Motion Machine" is the story of a girl who invented a machine that never stops and runs on nothing. She's not sure how she did it, and she's beginning to regret it as it has affected her ability to eat or sleep. I loved this poem because the frazzled girl in the illustration was priceless, and made me wonder if there are times in my life that I bear a frightening resemblance to the cartoon figure. Children would find this poem entertaining because the words are humorous, but I doubt they'd get the metaphor of a person running on empty that I think can be found in this poem. I think we all can relate to feeling like we're just going and going without a chance to rest or fill up. It's never a good feeling, but it really is an essential part of a busy, full life. However, it's nice to have a witty, entertaining view of those times when you don't really take the time to laugh. I'm seriously considering posting a copy in the corner of my mirror.
"We're Loudies," is a poem that reminds me that you learn the most when you listen. The poem is told from the perspective of people who always have to be the loudest and have the last word. The poem is painstakingly honest about the truth for these "Loudies" with quotes like "We're too dense to admit that we've nothing to say," and "Our trivial minds are essentially numb." This poem can serve to remind kids and adults alike that the brightest people are those who listen and learn from others rather than those who talk with the "only intention [of] drowning you out." Another aspect of this poem that I really liked was that certain words (e.g. every use of loud or Loudies, crow, bluster, bray and shout) were bolded and really seemed to add an appropriate volume to the words.
Finally, the poem "I Think My Computer is Crazy," was one of my favorites because honestly, who hasn't had that thought?! The entire poem goes through a long list of all the many ways the speaker's computer is acting up from strange symbols to odd noises that sound "like kangaroos hopping on fruit." While I can relate to computers completely going insane and getting that infamous blue screen of death; I also can relate to the end of the poem. For the computer had reason to be going crazy; there was bologna in the disk drive. Way more often than when my computer had actually gone crazy, my computer seems to have gone crazy because of the operator. This poem spoke to me because while the similes are clever, the subject is near to my heart, if not too terribly dear.
All in all, I enjoyed the poems; they're silly enough to appeal to the kid in me (and to kids in general), but enough of them have a dual deeper meaning that appeal to the adult in me (she randomly has to make an appearance). I would recommend this anthology for both parents and kids. It would be an excellent way for everyone to enjoy the reading and indulge in just a little bit of silliness.
Additional note: As part of this post, I searched for the Shel Silverstein page on the Barnes and Noble website; apparently he does have a new book (released this September). So exciting.
"We're Loudies," is a poem that reminds me that you learn the most when you listen. The poem is told from the perspective of people who always have to be the loudest and have the last word. The poem is painstakingly honest about the truth for these "Loudies" with quotes like "We're too dense to admit that we've nothing to say," and "Our trivial minds are essentially numb." This poem can serve to remind kids and adults alike that the brightest people are those who listen and learn from others rather than those who talk with the "only intention [of] drowning you out." Another aspect of this poem that I really liked was that certain words (e.g. every use of loud or Loudies, crow, bluster, bray and shout) were bolded and really seemed to add an appropriate volume to the words.
Finally, the poem "I Think My Computer is Crazy," was one of my favorites because honestly, who hasn't had that thought?! The entire poem goes through a long list of all the many ways the speaker's computer is acting up from strange symbols to odd noises that sound "like kangaroos hopping on fruit." While I can relate to computers completely going insane and getting that infamous blue screen of death; I also can relate to the end of the poem. For the computer had reason to be going crazy; there was bologna in the disk drive. Way more often than when my computer had actually gone crazy, my computer seems to have gone crazy because of the operator. This poem spoke to me because while the similes are clever, the subject is near to my heart, if not too terribly dear.
All in all, I enjoyed the poems; they're silly enough to appeal to the kid in me (and to kids in general), but enough of them have a dual deeper meaning that appeal to the adult in me (she randomly has to make an appearance). I would recommend this anthology for both parents and kids. It would be an excellent way for everyone to enjoy the reading and indulge in just a little bit of silliness.
Additional note: As part of this post, I searched for the Shel Silverstein page on the Barnes and Noble website; apparently he does have a new book (released this September). So exciting.
This is great Courtney! It is important to get kids excited about reading, and one of the best ways I have found is to incorporate humor. It seems that this book does an amazing job of that. Reading is fun, and books like this prove it. I would love to hear more about the illustrations. Are they as awesome as the text? I love hearing about your personal connections! Thank you for sharing those with us! And what are fummawummalummazumms? And where does the pizza come into the story? Was there a poem about pizza? I worked in a pizza restaurant for three years, and the title really caught my attention.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, I thought the same as you when I read the title. With a name like A Pizza the Size of the Sun, I was hoping that Mr. Selverstein had a new collection because I loved his poems as a child. Despite the fact that this isn't Shel, it still sounds fantastic! The poems you describe like they would make great read aloud's, silly and fun so the kids want to listen, but capable of teaching concepts about poetry. Always a great combination for a reading/language arts teacher!
ReplyDeletePoetry is so important and yet, I STILL haven't observed the students in my 3rd grade practicum class study poetry. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could start by studying one of the poems in this analogy! I can almost hear them giggling along if given the chance to study a poem featuring fummawummalummazumms....whatever they are,they sound funny! I also think that "We're Loudies" sounds like a great poetry study for a 3rd grade class because when they get excited those kids can get very LOUD!! I liked reading about your connection with "I Think My Computer is Crazy", but I do have one quesiton, what the heck does "like kangaroos jumping on fruit" sound like exactly? :-) Nice find Ms. Mann.
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