This is a wonderful collection of poems that kids will immediately fall in love with. Poems are written from the perspective of different animals and objects, and also vary in structure so that its audience will get to experience all different types and levels of poetry. Illustrations are colorful and fun, and the writing is unique. Each poem is relatively short as well, so reading feels easy and organized.

The poems are written by different authors. The person listed on the cover is the one that selected the poems along with the illustrator’s name. The different authors of these poems decided to write in the voice of the objects or animals they wanted to talk about. This provides an interesting perspective, because in allows the reader to take the role of these objects or animals. ( )

Dirty Laundry Pile : Poems in Different Voices is a collection of poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko. Janeczko explains in her introduction that she collected these poems because she loves reading poems written in the voice of an object or an animal. The collection consists of poems in the voice of a vacuum, a crayon, and a cat to name a few. The poems are intended for amusement but could be used to illustrate perspective. After reciting the poems, students may enjoy writing their own poems from the point of view of a an everyday object. The poems sound natural and do not feel contrived. The poems are imaginative and the illustrations add to the imaginative nature of the poems. In a few of the poems the placement of the words contribute to the overall meaning of the poem. The poems do not patronize childhood by talking down to it and they are not didactic or preachy. Students in grades 1-5 are sure to enjoy this amusing collection. ( )

The introduction in this book was very nice. It demonstrates a great topic for a journal or poetry activity. Having students write a poem from the point of view of something else would allow them to use their imagination. This book has so many different poems written from the point of view of something that can't speak for themselves, but I would prefer my students to choose something that wasn’t already mentioned in the book. ( )

this book is full of fun different poems. it is good to use when discussing poems or rhyming in the classroom.