In the spirit of Lane Smith and Jon Klassen, this delightfully irreverent picture book dives into the world of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” where a boy with a unique vision gives some creative feedback to the famed poet.
When Robert Frost writes, “Whose woods these are I think I know,” he paints a picture of a serene winter night in the deep woods, surrounded by blankets and blankets of snow. But the tranquil scene is interrupted by a little boy! This wildly imaginative interloper generously offers to tweak the poem to make it more exciting.
Instead of riding a horse, why not a hippo? And replace the snow falling from the sky with cookie dough! As Robert Frost sputters in dismay, the boy unleashes poetic mayhem, but when his edits get away from him, the self-possessed poet and chaotic kid have to put their heads together to make a clean getaway.---from the publisher
40 pages 978-1481478021 Ages 4-8
Keywords: humor, poem, retelling, jungle, adventure, fun, animals, imagination, creative writing, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, Language Arts Curriculum
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This clever redux of Robert Frost's "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" is witty, irreverent, and entertaining.
Frost's famous poem is set in a snowy wood on the "darkest evening of the year." In the poem, the narrator describes the setting as having "easy wind" and "downy flake" and the "woods are lovely, dark and deep." He halts his horse to watch the snow fall, enjoying the silence and darkness.
A young boy reimagines the poem. He sees the woods, but his ride is a hippopotamus with a jingle bell collar. Robert Frost appears at a window, correcting the boy, telling him it's not a hippo, it is in fact supposed to be a horse. The boy, not convinced, asks the man who he is. Frost defends his poem, "I *wrote *this poem." The boy says he only sees his hippo, no horse at all, and changes Frost's work to a jungle setting. Frost disagrees, saying it does not snow in the jungle. As Frost continues to pontificate, the boy says it's boring, so boring that the hippo has fallen asleep. The boy continues to add fun to the poem with a giant snake, a hippo that does karate, an incoming meteor, a tidal wave, and an alien invasion.
The surprise ending uses lines from another Frost poem and ties the new poem and its exciting story together. The Frost character ends up loving the redux and riding off with the boy atop the blue hippo.
At the beginning of the book, you can almost hear the disdain in Frost's voice as he points his finger and "schools" the young boy. When he says he wrote the poem, the word "wrote" is in bold font, directing the reader to give more emphasis, or inflection, to this word. Frost carries a notebook and pen, further showing him as a man of learning. He pulls out a podium to recite the last stanza of his poem, emphasizing the fact he is a writer/poet who recites his poems in the public. He's soon interrupted when the aliens show up and he must hop on the rhino with the boy as the boy shouts, "Run for your lives!"
This fun interpretation includes the original poem after the story. For younger kids, read the poem after the story. For older children, read the poem first so that they have a starting point. The humor will make much more sense if they are familiar with the poem. This is a great conversation opener for a unit on modern poetry (by modern, I am including the twentieth century to the present).
Highly, highly recommended ages 3 and up. It would be a fun creative writing lesson to have students choose a famous poem and rewrite it to "jazz it up a bit." Who knows? Maybe their outcome becomes a picture book!
Recommended by: Pamela Thompson McLeod, Librarian and Blogger, Florida USA
See more of her recommendations: http://booksbypamelathompson.blogspot.com/
