Earthshake -- Poems from the Ground Up

We've been reading a lot of poetry in my house recently. There aren't enough parents around to read to each child individually in the evenings after we get home from work and school, what with having to feed them (and us) and provide them with a reasonably clean habitat. Poetry seems to be working well--more challenging for both (3 and 6 year old) than picture books, and holding the attention of 3 year old more firmly than chapter books. And when the poetry also lends itself to Teaching Moments, so much the better. Yesterday's find was Earthshake -- Poems from the Ground Up by Lisa Westberg Peters, illustrated by Cathie Fetstead (Greenwillow 2003). It was greatly enjoyed.

Being older and more cynical than my boys, which is the way it should be (?), I found the poems somewhat uneven, although all are interesting and lend themselves to Educational Discussions about geology, which is always a good thing. Here is my favorite poem:

The Yellowstone Whale

Deep beneath
the bubbling pools
lives a big whale.

When it breaths,
we snap pictures
of its spout.

When it flicks its tail,
the ground shakes
beneath our feet.

Stay down deep
whale.
Stay down.

I liked this image very much.