SCHOOL POETRY

PUT YOUR EYES UP HERE AND OTHER SCHOOL POEMS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dakos, Kalli. 2003. Put Your Eyes Up Here and Other School Poems. Ill. By G. Brian Karas. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.  ISBN 811179.

SUMMARY

Put Your Eyes Up Here and Other School Poems by Kalli Dakos takes readers through a school year in Ms. Roys’ class. Dakos primarily uses a Penny, a young girl who wants to get off to a good start in the introductory poem “Introducing a New Me,” to help narrate events. By the second poem, “Give Me Normal,” readers immediately learn that Ms. Roys is not your typical teacher; in fact, she is everything but typical! Through a series of 52 poems, readers get to discover Ms. Roys’ quirkiness as Penny and her classmates go on a class trip to the museum, hear Ms. Roys’ poems about her students, take tests, encounter ghosts of students past, write poems about snow, share each other’s interests, and finally come together to make the perfect goodbye gift for Ms. Roys as the school year comes to an end.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Poet

Kalli Dakos is well-known for her school poetry collections.  Her experience as an elementary school teacher has served as her inspiration, and her expertise with young children shows in her poems. Her poetry accurately portrays the classroom, and her poetic style incorporates humor that still reflects the young child’s sensitivities in a way that does not condescend but, rather, acknowledges and validates these feelings.

Layout

All the poems in Dakos’ book are presented in sequential order, which is appropriate for the story that unfolds as it allows one poem to easily flow into the next, creating a cohesive unit. A table of contents provided at the beginning of the book makes it easy for readers to locate individual poems. Most poems have their own pages, but some poems, like “Introducing a New Me” and “Give Me Normal,” are paired together on a single page. Bolded, slightly-larger titles make it easy to identify a single poem, however. Depending on their length, some poems run to a second page, but most fit on one page. In addition, each poem is accompanied by at least one illustration. G. Brian Karas captures Dakos’ humorous, child-like tone with whimsical, simple caricatures and pencil drawings that do not distract from the words but rather enhance the meaning of each poem, helping move the poems along.

Poetic Elements

Dakos clearly displays her poetic technique throughout the poems in this book. Most of the poems are free verse poems, giving them a childlike, stream-of-consciousness feel that lets readers focus on meaning. “I Don’t Believe in Ghosts,” for example, is narrated as a dramatic play complete with stage directions to help readers understand what the characters are saying, thinking, and doing.  Other poems however, showcase Dakos’ extensive poetic technique. Perhaps the element she relies on most throughout this book is imagery.  In any given poem, readers can imagine what is being described simply because Dakos provides vivid sensory details to create that image in the reader’s mind. In “A Cemetery for Pencils,” for instance, Dakos appeals to the sense of sight by using carefully chosen words such as “broken-down” and “styrofoam gravestones” to describe these pencils’ figurative death. Dakos also uses sound techniques such as repetition and onomatopoeia heavily throughout her book. “Why We’re Sitting at Our Desks Wearing Raincoats and Holding Umbrellas,” for instance, is told almost entirely in repeated onomatopoeic words: “Drip!/Drop!” This helps readers experience the leaky roof that the characters in the book are trying to shield themselves from. In this particular poem, Dakos also plays with text arrangement to imitate raindrops falling from the roof, further bringing the experience to life for readers. While many of the poems focus on single, everyday events, they all deliver a humorous, comical emotional impact, such as “My Underwear,” which tells of Piggy’s pig-printed underwear, and some even reach warm, touching emotions, such as “The Magic Wand,” which discusses Ms. Roy’s effort to make every child feel special and find inspiration.

Appeal

Dakos displays a variety of experiences and poetic forms that will surely appeal to young readers. Because many of the poems are narrated by Penny, readers are invited into a young child’s mind, letting them experience the same emotions and thoughts that they themselves may already have about school. In “Ode to My Stressball,” for instance, young children will associate with the feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed with schoolwork and will also feel those emotions melt away as they imagine that they, like Penny, squish and poke a stress ball for relief.  Some poems are free verse poems, but most do use end rhyme, such as “The Art Gallery on Penny’s Back” and “Our Teacher’s Earrings,” which makes them especially appealing and memorable to the ears of young readers. The language used in the poems is simple and easy to understand, yet it also has the capacity to enrich readers’ language by using words in new ways and exposing them to poetic elements such as onomatopoeia.  Many readers will be able to identify with Penny and may be able to make a connection to that one warm, eccentric teacher who changed their lives or that one class writing assignment that inspired students to write.

Overall Quality

As this book represents a school year in Ms. Roys’ classroom, each poem helps advance the storyline and can be thought of as a vignette or snapshot of a day in Ms. Roys’ class.  Since the beginning, Ms. Roys’ class is set up as a fun learning experience, and each poem reinforces this purpose.  Due to this, the majority of the poems are humorous and light, embodying the child’s spirit of wonder. As part of the child’s experience, however, there are poems that represent feelings of frustration, such as “Worried About Being Worried,” in which Penny is nervous about a spelling test. In the culminating poem, readers are taken on a bittersweet journey as they, along with Penny and her classmates, say good-bye to Ms. Roys. The poems in this book will resonate with young readers both because of their poetic quality as well as because of their lighthearted yet moving content which, combined with Karas’ illustrations, will take their imaginations to far off places.

SPOTLIGHT POEM AND ACTIVITIES

“The Magic Wand” by Kalli Dakos

Ms. Roys says

We all have magic inside.

It is our birthright.

One nose,

Two eyes,

Ten fingers,

Lots of hair.

Tons of magic.

On her desk is

A magic wand

To remind us.

Sometimes we borrow it

When we need an idea

For a poem or a story.

Sometimes we just look

At the colors inside

When it is all lit up.

Sometimes we hold it

And tell the class

About a special dream.

Sometime we use it

To make a wish.

“The Magic Wand” is particularly representative of the emotional, lyrical, and sensory quality of Dakos’ poetry.  It taps into readers’ hearts by making an ordinary, non-magical object and turning it into something that has the power to remind children that they are special. By describing what this magic wand does, Dakos not only provides enough imagery that lets readers visualize that wand in their own way but also allows their imaginations to soar as they dream of other ways that a “magic” wand can brighten their day.

Before reading the poem, I would take out a toy wand and ask students to activate their prior knowledge about magic wands by asking questions such as, “Do you know what this is? Where have you seen or heard of one used? What does it do? What do you wish a magic wand could do for you?” Then, I would tell students that the poem we will read is about a magic wand. During reading, I would take my wand and point to students’ nose, eyes, fingers and hair when those lines come up. After reading, I would ask each student to take my wand and make a wish.