Messing Around on the Monkey Bars

Messing Around on the Monkey Bars by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Jessie Hartland is a fun book of poems that can be read in any classroom and at home. The poems throughout the book are geared towards children ages 7 - 9. They are poems about school that have two voices being read. I think these poems are great because they show different ways to read poems, with two voices. This means that these poems are meant to be read aloud, which I think would make a good topic of discussion in a classroom. By reading these poems in class would bring up other topics, as well as different interpretations and perspectives that students get while the poems are being read aloud and they are listening or if they are the ones reading them. I thought that the illustrations and color used throughout the poems were wonderful. They are drawn in a way that look like a little kid may have drawn them. The pages also use conversation bubbles which I thought helped link the text to the pictures. I really liked this book of poems and I think that other people would too and that students would enjoy reading it in the classroom as well as at home with the family.