(Book Cover Compliments of Barnes and Noble)
Bibliography
Grandits, John. Technically, it’s not my fault : concrete poems. New York: Clarion Books. 2004. ISBN 9780618428335Review
In a creatively irreverent and decidedly laugh-out-loud style, Grandit explores the daily musings of an 11-year old boy named Robert. Grandit’s concrete poems are masterpieces built from over 30 different fonts arranged in whimsical as well as technical shapes. Readers will enjoy rotating and revolving the book to follow the text. Poems on Robert’s ordinary issues cover homework, his crazy sister, skateboarding, and mowing the grass. Readers will delight in Robert wrapping his sister’s algebra homework around a firework tube and seeing it arc then shower down in random numbers on the page. Robert’s eccentric side is also seen in poems touching on the history of farts, the school bus that eats children, and inventing a spew-inducing roller-coaster. The “Spew Machine” carries readers across the page through red flames, waves of water and poisonous black spiders only to be shot from a cannon at the end, but saved by a parachute. The red, black, and white colors are masterfully used to help create Grandit’s crisp, playful images. Children in grades 4-8, especially boys, will be sucked in to Robert’s engrossing world.
Honors
ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
ALA Notable Children’s Books 2005
"Starred Review" : School Library Journal and VOYA
Dear Aunt Hildegard,
Thank you [2] for the amazing gifts.[3] It was terrific[4] getting your package!…The sweater was totally awesome.10 It’s amazing how well you know me. 11 …
[1] with Footnotes
[2] For nothing!
[3] Do you have the slightest clue what an 11-year-old boy likes?
[4] I almost croaked when I saw the package. I still remember last year’s gift. “Oh, no! Not again!” I screamed.
10 In the history of sweaters, there has never been an uglier waste of yarn.
11 Where did you ever find a sweater that not only has Barney on it but also is two sizes too big for me?
Connections
In conjunction with Language Arts classes, read Gandit's The Thank-You Letter as an introduction to teaching high school students to create footnotes in research papers. With younger grades, the poem could also be used as a fun way to introduce a letter-writing unit.
Share several of the concrete poems from Technically using a document camera so that the entire class can see the concrete poems clearly. Then, using "My Stupid Day" as an example, use a clockface to write a concrete poem as a class about a typical (or not so typical) student day. Afterwards, brainstorm ideas for writing more concrete poems. Try to get students to look at their own personal experiences for ideas. Offer some general shapes for idea starters showing poems from other books as examples. Then, allow students time to brainstorm on their own and work on a personal concrete poem.
Share more concrete poem books:
Brad Burg. Outside the Lines: Poetry at Play.
Douglas Florian. Omnibeasts: Animal Poems and Paintings.
John Grandits. Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems.
Paul B. Janeczko, ed. A Poke in the I.
Smith, Charles R. Diamond Life: Baseball Sights, Sounds, and Swings
Share several of the concrete poems from Technically using a document camera so that the entire class can see the concrete poems clearly. Then, using "My Stupid Day" as an example, use a clockface to write a concrete poem as a class about a typical (or not so typical) student day. Afterwards, brainstorm ideas for writing more concrete poems. Try to get students to look at their own personal experiences for ideas. Offer some general shapes for idea starters showing poems from other books as examples. Then, allow students time to brainstorm on their own and work on a personal concrete poem.
Share more concrete poem books:
Brad Burg. Outside the Lines: Poetry at Play.
Douglas Florian. Omnibeasts: Animal Poems and Paintings.
John Grandits. Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems.
Paul B. Janeczko, ed. A Poke in the I.
Smith, Charles R. Diamond Life: Baseball Sights, Sounds, and Swings
