The World’s Greatest Poems
Do not be deceived when you read J. Patrick Lewis and Keith Graves’s book, The World’s Greatest Poems. It does not contain any of the world’s best poems by any means—I don’t even think it contains one of them, with no offense intended! Instead, the book contains a variety of poems about the world’s greatest things, from the shortest street to the kookiest hat, the tallest roller coaster to the talkingest bird. I wish I had known this before I picked it up at the library; we were in a bit of a hurry and I was looking for this week’s poetry selection. While interesting, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
The book is based on the premise of answering 25 thought-provoking questions that children might ask, including who has kissed the most cobras, been stuck the longest on an elevator, and eaten the most live scorpions. Other questions answered include which snake is the shortest, which dinosaur was the dumbest, and which potato was the largest, among many others.
The book is funny, but it might be better intended for the elementary-aged crowd rather than the primary one I typically read to. Jokes about eggs being sunny-side up, for example, might not go over well with younger children who aren’t familiar with such a thing. Each poem is prefaced with the actual fact in question. For example, the “talkingest bird” was named Puck, and he was a budgerigar parakeet. He knew an incredible 1,728 words and was owned by Camille Jordan from Petaluma, California. His record was met on January 31, 1993, so there may have been other birds who’ve surpassed him yet.
After the fact is read, a poem (in larger text) follows. The poem is silly and entertaining, but my six-year-old wasn’t very interested in most of them. She just wanted to go through the book and quickly find out each fact (something that I will not do here; you will have to check the book out if you want to know about the longest traffic jam or the most crooked building!), which was fun to do as well.
If your child doesn’t enjoy the poetry, you could always use the facts to inspire his or her own story, dramatic interpretation, or artistic interpretation of the fact. My daughter enjoys drawing many of the things that we read, and I know another child who adores acting them out (and will always ask to do so when reading a new story). This book is particularly fun to act out, with plenty of opportunities for exaggerated movement and hyperbole!