Poetry Book Review - Lee Bennett Hopkins Anthology

Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees: School Poems

by Lee Bennett Hopkins

This small collection of school-related poems is a beginning reader book, a level 2 I Can Read! selection, appropriate for children ages 6-8 years old. It contains poems by J. Patrick Lewis, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Jane Yolen, Bruce Lansky, and Alice Schertle among others.

Introduce this selection by having children tell some of the things they do in school each day – wear a backpack, do spelling, eat lunch, ask questions, take a quiz, go to the library, etc. Ask children if they were going to tell a penpal about their school, what would they talk about? What is their favorite thing about school? Their least favorite?
Remind them many poets have experienced the same things they do, and they have written poems sharing their feelings about school. A good choice for reading aloud:

Art Class
by Leslie Danforth Perkins

Dream catchers hanging
with feathers and beads.
Pictures from popping corn,
lentils and seeds.
Egg carton centipedes,
paintings with sand.
Art is a feast for
my eyes and my hands.

The poems are arranged chronologically, beginning with waking up in the morning and ending with arriving home after school in the afternoon. Many of the anthologies edited by Hopkins seem to follow this particular arrangement: Blast Off!: Poems About Space, Halloween Howls: Holiday Poetry, and Hand in Hand: an American History Through Poetry to mention a few. This format gives a particularly enticing feel to the beginning of the book and a satisfying wrap-up to the finish.

Hopkins’ poem selections are age-appropriate both in subject and structure. The brightly colored illustrations by Yoshikawa are appealing and express the cheerful enthusiasm about school which children in early elementary grades feel so spontaneously.

For an extension, children could draw a picture illustrating one of the poems in the book or depicting their favorite school-related activity.

Hopkins, Lee Bennett, ed. Yoshikawa, Sachiko, ill. 2008. Hamsters, Shells, and Spelling Bees: School Poems. New York: HarperCollins.