Description
Book SynopsisA funny story, full of wordplay, brings poetry alive as never before!
Kilmer Watts makes his living teaching piano lessons, but when automatic pianos arrive in town, he realizes he’s out of a job. He spots a “Help Wanted” sign at the poem factory and decides to investigate — he’s always been curious about how poems are made.
The foreman explains that machines and assembly lines are used for poetry these days. So Kilmer learns how to operate the “meter meter” and empty the “cliché bins.” He assembles a poem by picking out a rhyme scheme, sprinkling in some similes and adding alliteration.
But one day the machines malfunction, and there is a dramatic explosion at the poem factory. How will poetry ever survive?
Kyle Lukoff’s funny story, rich in wordplay, is complemented by Mark Hoffmann’s lively, quirky art. The backmatter includes definitions of poetic feet, types of poems (with illustrated examples) and a glossary of other terms. An author’s note explains the inspiration for the story.
Key Text Features
definitions
glossary
author's note
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.4
Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
Trade ReviewLiberal use of terms such as epithalmium and enjambment, both defined at book’s end, will draw precocious kids as well as adult poetry lovers to this friendly introduction to poetry and poetics. * Publisher's Weekly *
Hoffmann's playfully expressive double-page illustrations… heighten Lukoff's guffaws… Lukoff's sophisticated silliness hits the sweet spot for lovers of wordplay. * Kirkus Reviews *
The off-kilter angles and beanshaped personalities in Mark Hoffmann’s pictures add to the madcappery of a story that, with a little concentration (and the interpretive help of an adult), will be a primer on poetic forms and styles. * The Wall Street Journal *
Readers who love words, and especially those who love poetry, will enjoy Explosion at the Poem Factory. * Winnipeg Free Press *
