{"id":1961,"date":"2010-07-02T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2010-07-02T06:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2010-07-02T00:01:51","modified_gmt":"2010-07-02T06:01:51","slug":"poetry-friday-poultry-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1961","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: Poultry Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“RECESS: There are chickens on the playground, \/ but none are satisfied. \/
They must keep running back and forth \/ to reach the other slide.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

BAH-DUM-CHING, my friends!<\/p>\n

It’s been a while since I’ve posted for Poetry Friday, and today I’m gettin’ goofy with George Shannon’s and Lynn Brunelle’s<\/a><\/strong> Chicken Scratches: Poultry Poetry and Rooster Rhymes<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Chronicle Books, March 2010). It’s illustrated by Scott Menchin<\/a><\/strong>, whose work I’ve yet to feature here at the ‘ol blawg. <\/p>\n

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So, these poems, which never really miss a beat (in more ways than one, though I initially meant in terms of meter), are pure silliness. But what I love is the sort of demented, quirky, even almost dark notes some of them strike (very subtly); you know I like my demented picture book<\/a>s<\/strong>. Again, this is mostly light-hearted whimsy you get here, but then there’s the Halloween poem with the chick who shows up at someone’s door as a deviled egg (heh) and the “Sick Day” poem in which a rooster with the flu is told by a visiting doctor to drink his bowl of chicken soup: “Drink up…It’s good for you. I promise it’s no one you knew.” Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls all this “occasionally edgy” and “off-kilter,” and School Library Journal<\/em> refers to the humor as “somewhat irreverent.”<\/p>\n

There are a wide variety of poems here, too, and Menchin’s illustrations—rendered in pen and colored digitally—are the perfect complement to the book’s rather spastic, spirited humor. (“Punny and snappy” is how Kirkus<\/em> puts it.) I mean, check out that opening poem, “Recess.” Gotta love it. <\/p>\n

And, fortunately, I’ve got some art from the book to share with you today, so I can let the illustrations do the talking. Here are some more poems from the title. Happy Poetry Friday, and enjoy…<\/p>\n

P.S. I love the disgruntled chick of “Make a Wish” below…<\/p>\n

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“HULA ZELDA: Hula Zelda was a dancer. \/ Brother! Could she shimmy! \/ Up and down, she’d twist around \/ and wiggle every limb-y. \/ She put the wow in luau \/ as she hula-ed through each night. \/ And when she clucked ALOHA \/ roosters crowed in sheer delight. \/ She loved the island rhythms \/ so much it sometimes hurt. \/ ‘Cause every egg that Zelda laid \/ came wearing a grass skirt.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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Note: Amy at <\/em>The Poem Farm<\/a><\/em><\/strong> is hosting the Poetry Friday round-up today.<\/em> <\/p>\n

CHICKEN SCRATCHES: POULTRY POETRY AND ROOSTER RHYMES. Copyright \u00a9 2010 by George Shannon and Lynn Brunelle. Illustration copyright \u00a9 2010 Scott Menchin. Published by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“RECESS: There are chickens on the playground, \/ but none are satisfied. \/They must keep running back and forth \/ to reach the other slide.”(Click to enlarge spread.) BAH-DUM-CHING, my friends! It’s been a while since I’ve posted for Poetry Friday, and today I’m gettin’ goofy with George Shannon’s and Lynn Brunelle’s Chicken Scratches: Poultry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books","category-poetry-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}