Independent Reading Level: Grade PK-5
Awards/Honors: NCTE Awards for Excellence in Poetry for Children (2006) ( )

This book is such a sweet collection of poems. It covers the story of Cecilia and her cat Gorilla. It talks about how they became friends and grew to love one another. It would make a great introduction to poetry for younger students, and it would also be a chance to talk about caring for animals. ( )

When Gorilla Goes Walking is a picture book that is made out of poems. The book is set up with both two pictures and two poems on either side of the page, or one poem with one picture. The poems make up a story about Celia and her cat named Gorilla. I like this because the author uses individual poems to make up a whole story. The poems are set up with a title, which is beneficial to the reader because then one knows the theme of the poem. This book could be used in a poetry class for ages 6-12, the poetry may be simple but for some children poetry is very hard to write and understand. This would be a good introduction to poetry, also because children can relate to it, “ Gorilla has a lovely bed/ Too bad she won’t sleep in it/ Instead, she lies beside me/ tossing every other minute.” The illustrations are simple, looking as though they are just painted in drawings; I believe this is good because it does not take away from the poems. The text and images are symmetrical which allows for a greater understanding of the poems.

The poetry about a girl and her cat gives students the opportunity to form insure rest in poetry through reading poems they can relate to their own life if they have ever owned a pet. ( )

This book was full of peoms and would be great for helping students with making connections to peoms. Every poem has something to do with a cat and its owner, the girl.