The Poem That Will Not End
by Joan Bransfield Graham
illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker
Date: 2014
Publisher: Two Lions
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca
Ryan O'Brian is riding a wave of inspiration with no shoreline in sigh--he can't STOP writing poetry. In the cafeteria with french fries. In the bathroom with toothpaste. Even on the soccer field with mud!
(synopsis from Goodreads)
I think I would've really enjoyed this one when I was a kid. It's kind of a fiction/non-fiction hybrid. It's the story of Ryan O'Brian and his inability to stop composing poetry. It continues all day, and the reader is introduced to a variety of poetic forms. The story comes to a conclusion when Ryan's teacher gives the class a poetry-writing assignment... and Ryan finds that he's finally drawing a blank!
Each page or spread has part of the story (which is also in rhyme) as well as a poem. I recognized that there were a number of different forms being presented, and I hoped that there would be some explanation. There is, and in the informative back matter, we learn all about a bunch of technical poetry terms (they were linked back to the appropriate pages in my Kindle copy). I learned quite a bit about poetry and voice in this section.
The illustrations are interesting, although I don't know if I would say I loved them. I think they work well with the subject matter, though.
Overall, this is a really nice picture book. I'd recommend it to readers who like poetry and those who just like words and all the wonderful things we can do with them.
Quotable moment:
Premise: 4/5
Meter: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5
Overall: 3.83 out of 5
