Genre 2 Book Review of AND THE GREEN GRASS GREW ALL AROUND

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Schwartz, Alvin. 1992. AND THE GREEN GRASS GREW ALL AROUND: FOLK POETRY FROM EVERYONE. Ill. By Sue Truesdell. New York: HarperTrophy. ISBN 0060227575

PLOT SUMMARY
AND THE GREEN GRASS GREW ALL AROUND: FOLK POETRY FROM EVERYONE is a collection of folk poems. The book is divided into fifteen chapters. These chapters are arranged by topics such as People, Food, School and Work. In each of these chapters there are poems, riddles, rhymes, chants and sometimes songs.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This wonderful collection of folk poetry is very entertaining. The poems and chants that he has put into his collection are very well known to anyone who has played jump rope on a playground. His collection is very fun and most of the poems have a certain rhythm about them. Many of the poems are chants that are learned while children are jumping rope or playing rhythmic hand games. This is a very humorous collection. My opinion of some of the poems and chants is that it doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to rhyme!

The illustrations are well done in black and white. The drawings are cartoonish in nature and add to the humor of the poems. The faces of most of the characters have exaggerated expressions that add to the silly nature of the book.

The notes at the end of the book are also very interesting. His definition of folk poetry is very good: “There are great differences between folk poetry and literary poetry. A literary poem is intended to be read silently, to be shared with a reader in the privacy of a printed page. A folk poem is intended to be spoken or sung or performed in some other way. It needs a performer as well as a poet to give it its special quality.” His notes also explain much of the history associated with folk poetry in a clear and easy to understand manner, adding to the special quality of the book. This lively collection of humorous folk poems can be enjoyed by the old and young alike.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal: “A marvelous book that is sure to become a classic if children have any say in the matter. Schwartz has gathered sassy, funny, scary, and slightly naughty children’s folk poetry heard on schoolgrounds and wherever else kids are having fun.”

From Kirkus Reviews: “Not since Carl Withers’s A Rocket in My Pocket (1984) has there been such a grand compilation of familiar (and unfamiliar) rhymes and chants from the children’s own tradition: riddles, games, wishes and taunts; poems about love, food, school, or animals; parodies, nonsense, and stories.”

CONNECTIONS
Many of these poems can be acted out with the class.
An outdoor activity could have the children jumping rope to the poems.
Older students can make up new words to the poems and create there own folk poetry.