Toasting Marshmallows- Genre 3

Bibliography

George, Kristine O'Connell. 2001. Toasting Marshmallows. Ill. by Kate Kiesler. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 0-618-04597-X

Plot Summary

This book focuses on a yearly family camping trip. There are thirty poems in this book. It is told from the sister's point of view. All the poems have something to do with a camping trip. It begins with putting up the tent and ends with putting away the flannel pajamas until next year. The poems are humorous. George uses concrete poems, haiku's, cinquains and onomatopoeia. Her poems in this book do not rhyme.

Critical Analysis

George's writing is very simple and concrete. I have never been on a camping trip and she was able to paint a very realistic picture in my mind for me with the help of Kate Kiesler what camping would be like. The language of every poem helps create a vivid image. In the poem "Sleeping Bag" you can picture a girl getting dressed in the sleeping bag by her word choice. /"I wriggle, scoootch,/ scrunch, and jiggle. Flop/ Front flips, back flips- /I'm a caterpillar/ in a cozy cloth cocoon/that zips." George chooses all of her words carefully to also create imagery and make the reader laugh or feel as if you are camping with this family.

The illustrator Kate Kiesler paints beautiful scenery with oil paintings. The illustrations are vibrant colors that describe exactly what the text is saying. The scenes are very realistic. The poem "Flashlight" has the text creatively inside the beams of light from a flashlight. The reader will feel like they are on the camping trip. You can not only see the pictures, but you can hear the sounds, feel the chill from the night air, smell and almost taste the toasted marshmallows. It is a delight for the senses!

Review Excerpt(s)

Booklist 2001: "this fine collection brings the outdoors up close in quiet, immediate poems that engage all the senses."

Christopher Moning (Children's Literature): "With a child's eye view, and with simple, well-chosen words."

Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry, 2002

Texas Bluebonnet 2003-2004

Connections

- Choose a topic and students write a cinquain about that topic.

- Turn out the lights in the classroom. The students read poems about flashlights. Have students brainstorm and write poems on flashlights.

-Read other poems by Kristine O'Connell George.

-Have a camping theme day with other camping books, and learn camping songs.