Boy Wonders - Poetry



Bibliography: 

Brown, Calef. 2011. BOY WONDERS. New York: Simon & Schuster. 978-1-4169-7877-0.

Plot Summary:

Boy Wonders is a wonderful rhyming picture book about a boy who is very inquisitive and asks a lot of questions, some of which are strangely obvious questions to ask.  His crazy inquires along with beautiful illustrations bring this book alive and make it so much fun to read aloud and explore the pictures. 

Critical Analysis: 

Boy Wonders is a beautiful rhyming picture book; it is what would be considered typical poetry because of its flow, rhythm and rhyme.  There are such lines in the book as, “Do bees get hives?  Do onions cry?  Is pepper apt to sneeze?  Do paper plates and two-by-fours remember being trees?”  Such great questions that can even stump an adult!  The flow of the book is fantastic, going from one crazy question to the next.  The rhyme of the story changes a little throughout and it is somewhat dependent on the type of question that is being asked by the boy.

“Do sleepwalking lumberjacks hunger for slumbersnacks?  Stacks of flapjacks perhaps?”  What a great tongue twisting line to say out loud that many children would get such a kick out of!  The words and sounds that Calef Brown uses are truly impressive and surprising, they are written in a way that really challenges a child’s vocabulary.  Brown uses such words as dickens, Argonaut, cantankerous and forage, all words that are not in the average vocabulary but are fun to say for children, they are meaningful addition to the overall impact of the story, as well as expand children's vocabulary.  Strangely enough Calef Brown has found the ability to write meaningful phrases and questions and illustrate the most perfect, fun pictures to go along with the crazy things the boy says. 

One of my favorite illustrations in this book is of a toucan dressed in a sweater, hat, boots and scarf.  Calef Brown personified this little character by giving the toucan the greatest expression of disbelief and annoyance on his face with this MASSIVE bill that takes up almost the whole page.  The wording in this poem is so odd but so fun to contemplate, “Would a HAPPY toucan from the Yucatan become cantankerous up in Anchorage or the Yukon?  How about Tucson?”  What an unusual thing to write and so much fun to say!

Review Excerpts and Awards:

2011 National Book Festival Author

Connections:

·         It would be so much fun to read through this book, have children answer the questions Calef Brown’s Boy asks and have them interpret what they don’t understand.  Illustrations can really enable a child to understand words or phrases they wouldn’t understand without the illustrations.  What a fun open discussion that would be to have children yelling out answers about whether they think all giraffes have a high pitched laugh and if gargoyles actually gargle with garlic oil!