I’ve been told I have the sense of humor of a five-year-old. All the better to do my job, I reply. And I must admit that I really do laugh at the silly stuff in all the picture books I see. I still love the word play in Douglas Florian’s books of poetry. My particular favorite line is from a poem about penguins in Zoo’s Who, which talks about “penguinter vacation.” It never fails to get a chuckle from me.
Fans of silly poetry like Douglas Florian will not want to miss Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky in which animals are put with regular objects with unusual outcomes, much like in Scranimals. I love the collage art by Carin Berger in this fun book poems.
Get to know words backwards and forwards in Mom and Dad are Palindromes by Mark Shulman. This zany story has Bob freaking out after he learns about palindromes because it seems that palindromes are everywhere. He can’t get away from them. It’s fun to look for the hidden palindromes in the illustrations—there are over 100 to find in the book!
Whether you’re talking about homonyms and parts of speech or reading silly poems, these books will be sure to convince your students that language is fun.
