A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms

In my opinion this was a really great book to introduce poetry. I loved how engaging each poem was, in that it showed an example, but then also included descriptive words that aimed to inform us about each type of poetry. I also really enjoy how the poems are not too simple but are able to be understood by many ages. In addition, the poems address many different emotions and can appeal to a variety of feelings. “Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Finally, I loved the watercolor illustrations that showed contrast and colorful designs. The images and texts were well thought out, and the book serves as a unique experience for all readers.

This poetry anthology helps children understand the various types of poems out there. Editor Janeczko compiles example poems that model 29 different poetic forms, which he describes in detail in the endnotes. Each poem also has a short explanation on the primary page, so that only those interested in learning even more about the poetic form have to turn to the back of the book. Personally, because I was interested in the more detailed explanations, I would have preferred if those were on the page with the poem instead of the short definition, but I suppose that the quicker explanation would hold children’s attention better. Janeczko includes well-known poetry forms, such as haikus, limericks, and sonnets, as well as more obscure forms show more such as clerihew, double dactyl, and pantoum. The poems range from the classics (William Shakespeare and William Blake, for example) to the modern (Janeczko includes some of his own poetry). The colorful and quirky illustrations are done in watercolor, ink, and torn paper, an unusual style that I would generally find interesting but somehow doesn’t feel quite right here (exception to this: the illustrative style works wonderful with the found poem “The Paper Trail” by Georgia Heard). Overall, however, this is a great work for introducing children to poetry in its many manifestations. show less

Incredibly useful for students doing a unit on poetry: it includes many forms (haiku, limerick, etc.), each with an example, a definition and explanation of how to write one, and an illustration. I especially loved the limerick.

There once was a limerick called Steven
whose rhyme scheme was very uneven
it didn't make sense
it wasn't funny
and who'd call a limerick Steven anyway?
-Steven Herrick

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Re-read, and used for teaching, February 2022

I loved this book for multiple reasons. First, I liked this book because it was humorous and light hearted. For example, one of the poems was “ First day, new school year, backpack harbors a fossil… last June’s cheese sandwich.” The child also has to be mature enough to understand the humor in this poem and really as to engage in the text to make sense of why it’s funny. Second, I loved the illustrations in the book. I think they are very appropriate for the mood of the story. For example, one of the poems was about spring rain. Next to the poem was what looked like a child-crafted picture of a bright yellow figure and a bright blue figure standing underneath a red umbrella. These colors are very bold but make the reader think show more of a bright yellow rain jacket or the bright colors of spring. Another example would be the illustrations that went along with the poem about last June’s cheese sandwich. The pictures were of fossils of fish and old sandwiches, all of blacks, browns, and unfortunate greens. Finally, I enjoyed this book because I thought it was an interesting way of organizing a book of and about poems. Not only did they have cute and creative poems on each page, but underneath the picture there was a small sentence about what type of poem was on the page and how those types of poems are constructed. For example, one of the first pages there is a colorful picture of a mule. The poem that accompanies it on the right page is “In a world of mules, there are no rules.” On the left page, underneath the mule there it says “A couplet is a two-line poem or stanza, usually rhyming.

I think the main idea of this book was to inform readers how to write different kids of poems and how to bring those poems to life. show less

This book is a great book for someone who thinks they don't like poetry. It really grabs your attention, and keeps you intrigued the entire length through.

I think it was very informative and educational. This would be an awesome introduction book to teach your class about the rules of poetry. It also had great illustrations.

After reading this book, students should know the basic foundations of writing a poem. An assignment that would be proper for them would be to have then write their first basic poem.

This book, with stunning illustrations and catching colours, is a very well designed encyclopedia of poetic forms. Beginning with the shortest forms (couplet, tercet, quatrain) and moving into longer, more difficult ones such as the villanelle and the pantoum, the poems used as examples are very readable and can stand alone. I was even able to recommend this book to a young patron at the public library who was wandering but not interested in any fiction I could muster up. I asked her if she could answer the riddle given (which is fantastic) and when I showed her the answer she took the book out of my hands and read it all the way to the check-out counter.

This book was very fun and interesting for me to read because the poems it contains are creative and numerous. There are so many types of poems in this book that I had no idea existed. For instance, there are three types of Haikus! I was only aware of the one original method of writing a Haiku. It was fun to learn about these new poems and see some new examples of ones I was already familiar with. I enjoyed how there was a short explanation off in the corner of some of the pages that told the reader a little about the way the poem is usually written. Then, in the back of the book, it covers the definitions of each poem again. The pictures are super cool, bright, and fun too!
I feel that the overall purpose of this book is to shed a show more little bit of light on the large world of poetry. I say this because each type of poem this book gave an example of was only about a page long. There is much more room for further explanation on each type of poem, but there is simply just an example and a small "how-to." It is a great way to introduce someone to lots of poetry very quickly if they are unfamiliar with it. show less