Module 3: New Poetry Book (2020 or newer)

 

The Dirt Book: Poems About Animals That Live Beneath Our Feet

Bibliography

Harrison, David L. (2021). The dirt book: Poems about animals that live beneath our feet. Illustrated by Kate Cosgrove. Holiday House. ISBN: 9780823438617

 

Summary

The book is made up of a collection of poetry written by David L. Harrison about dirt and the creatures that live and utilize the earth we walk on (i.e. spiders, worms, ants, mice, moles).  The book includes a table of contents with poem titles and page numbers and begins with an introduction about dirt and its importance before leading into a variety of poems about what is found there.  Each poem is laid out on a two-page illustrated vertical spread that includes a poem on one page to go along with the illustrations.  The book concludes with author notes on each of the poem topics to allow the reader to glean even more information about these items and creatures.  There is also a bibliography at the end of the book broken up by poem topic as well.

 

Analysis

The vertical alignment of the book gives it a unique quality and the subject matter will appeal to many elementary school students, especially younger elementary.  Many children enjoy playing, digging, and learning about dirt and they will find the detailed and vibrant illustrations to be very intriguing and exciting.  The collection of poems are very diverse in their use of poetic elements and style.  Some poems include rhyming, but the lines that rhyme changes and other poems do not rhyme at all.  Some of the poems utilize repetition utilize repetition of the same line of phrase throughout the poem, for example “Gopher Tortoise” uses the same ending line for each stanza “He never shows them if he thinks they’re pests.”  However, other poems do not have any repetition.  The poem “Doodlebug” is laid out in a triangular/cone shape like the described home of the creature to reinforce the description made in the poem.  The main point of the collection of poetry is to teach students about the environment under their feet and the meaning behind each poem is evident. 

The change in poem length, style, and topic will keep the young reader engaged and they will learn through the poems and illustrations about the secret ecosystem that is under foot.  The author uses language that is mostly familiar to students, but will also introduce them to some new vocabulary to stretch their language skills.  However, the more difficult vocabulary is used in a way that will allow students to utilize context clues to work out the meaning of tricky words, like when the author says the mouse “needs to rouse from sleep.”

 

Poem

Mouse: Nightfall Calls

Below the doodlebugs

and grubs—

still farther down—

a small brown ball of fur

stirs, rests,

digesting last night’s berry,

insect, seed,

needs to rouse from sleep,

creep through steep halls

as nightfall

calls it from its tunneled home

to venture out,

to roam.

 

Activity

This poem collection would be a great introduction to a class when talking about organisms and environments in science class, especially in a 3^rd or 4^th grade class.  I would start by reading the introduction “This Book is About Dirt” and the “Dirt Recipe” poem as a read aloud.  Then I would hand out some of the remaining poems to partners or groups of students to read and look at the illustrations together.  I would then put up a butcher paper mural area with sky, grass and below that an open area of dirt for students to create their animal or creature from their poem.