There's No Place Like School: Classroom Poems
There's No Place Like School: Classroom Poems
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Perma-Bound from Publisher's Hardcover ©2010--
Publisher's Hardcover ©2010--
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HarperCollins
Annotation: Collection of thirteen poems covering everything kids love, and hate, about school.
 
Reviews: 6
Catalog Number: #44330
Format: Perma-Bound from Publisher's Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright Date: 2010
Edition Date: 2010 Release Date: 06/22/10
Illustrator: Manning, Jane,
Pages: 32 pages
ISBN: Publisher: 0-06-082338-0 Perma-Bound: 0-605-43601-0
ISBN 13: Publisher: 978-0-06-082338-2 Perma-Bound: 978-0-605-43601-5
Dewey: 811
LCCN: 2009020373
Dimensions: 29 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
ALA Booklist (Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Prelutsky follows What a Day It Was at School (2006) with another picture-book collection of poems that range from the classroom to the cafeteria to the playground. Contributed by well-known poets, including Carol Diggory Shields and Lee Bennett Hopkins, the mostly rhyming, lighthearted selections hit familiar targets, such as school lunch ("toad à la mode"), the anxiety of being called on in class, and mortifications like getting a noseful of water at the drinking fountain. The energetic, fruit-juice-hued watercolor scenes hum with cheerful energy and subversive humor and, like the poems, capture the chaotic intensity and fun of a typical school day.

Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)

Prelutsky selects pieces by well-known poets about the usual school subjects: cafeteria food, gym class, homework, etc. Though the ground is well trodden, each of these light verses works, with lots of humor and the occasional deviation from the everyday (a purple-painted frog, for instance). Watercolors with broad-faced, rosy-cheeked students add to the light atmosphere.

Kirkus Reviews

A collection of 18 poems seeks to encapsulate the school experience. With dry humor, David L. Harrison's "Show-and-Tell" describes what happens when Billy brings his snake to school; Kenn Nesbitt's soggy child sees wicked opportunity in a malfunctioning "Drinking Fountain"; Carol Diggory Shields captures, in clipped, breathless verse, the excitement of a "B-Ball" game. Other topics run the gamut from test anxiety to gross lunch food to recess to the challenge of cursive writing. Manning's spiky, slyly subversive watercolors give this collection a welcome edge, for, despite the overall solid quality of the selections, this is hardly a new concept—look at any back-to-school display to see its predecessors. Moreover, the final poem—a plaint about homework—which may excite sympathy, ends this volume on an oddly negative note. One to miss. (Picture book/poetry. 5-9)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Rhymes and animated watercolors bring to life every aspect of school, from bus rides to class pets, lunchtime to science tests, in this collection of 18 poems written by 13 poets including Lee Bennett Hopkins, Kenn Nesbitt, Carol Diggory Shields, and Prelutsky himself. The things kids love (%E2%80%9CMy work%E2%80%99s all done./ I gotta run./ Two minutes until recess%E2%80%9D) are balanced out by the things they hate (%E2%80%9CIf homework were banished, I%E2%80%99d probably never/ Complain about anything, anything ever%E2%80%9D) and often mixed with the comically gross (%E2%80%9COf all the magic I have seen/ My favorite, I suppose,/ Was yesterday at lunch when Mark/ Made milk come out his nose%E2%80%9D). Ages 5%E2%80%9310. (July)

School Library Journal (Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

K-Gr 3 This collection of 18 short and funny poems by 13 different writers covers topics like riding the bus (&4;Sixteen boys/fourteen girls/Thirty pairs of sleepy eyes&4;) to the struggles of learning cursive (&4;Who decides?/Who gets to choose?/Who dreams up these curlicues?&4;), all dear to the hearts of their intended audience. Prelutsky&9;s &4;Grasshopper Gumbo&4; lists the offerings in the school cafeteria: &4;Grasshopper Gumbo/Iguana Tail Tarts/Toad &2; La Mode/Pickled Pelican Parts....&4; Manning&9;s watercolors add colorful splashes of humor; her round-faced children are comical and cute. While this book has a lot in its favor, it&9;s unfortunately an addition to an already crowded field of light verse about school. Libraries that have Carol Diggory Shields&9;s Lunch Money (Dutton, 1995) or Prelutsky&9;s What a Day It Was at School! (HarperCollins, 2006) might want to consider this title as a fun but nonessential purchase.— Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL

Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
ALA Booklist (Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)
Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal (Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)
Wilson's Children's Catalog
Word Count: 995
Reading Level: 3.1
Interest Level: 1-4
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 3.1 / points: 0.5 / quiz: 138389 / grade: Lower Grades
Guided Reading Level: O

A day at school is:
a. marvelous
b. dreadful
c. silly
d. all of the above—and much, much more!

From suspicious hot lunches (yuck!), to pop quizzes (oh, no!), to recess and best friends (hooray!), everything you love—and love to hate—about school is front and center in this collection of eighteen poems by thirteen celebrated poets. One thing's for certain: there's no place like school!

Going to school / by Nina Payne
School bus / by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Show-and-tell / by David L. Harrison
Not fair / by Kay Winters
Don't ask me / by Yolanda Nave
Countdown to recess / by Kalli Dakos
The drinking fountain / by Ken Nesbitt
Why the frog in our class is purple / by Kalli Dakos
Cursive writing / by David L. Harrison
Lunchroom magic / by Charles Ghigna
Grasshopper gumbo / by Jack Prelutsky
B-ball / by Carol Diggory Shields
Classroom globe / by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
It's today? / by Sara Holbrook
When the teacher isn't looking / by Kenn Nesbitt
We're shaking maracas / by Jack Prelutsky
Far away / by Carol Diggory Shields.

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