STAMPEDE! Poems to Celebrate the WILD SIDE of School
Salas, Laura Purdie. 2009. Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the WILD SIDE of School. Ill. by Steven Salerno. New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-0-618-91488-3.
Review
Laura Purdie Salas has written eighteen short poems about school. These poems are full of similes and metaphors. Salas uses animal metaphors in each poem as she relates a mouse being lost in a maze of hallways, sparrows to children on the playground as they play, and a centipede to help with math problems due to his 100 feet. I laughed through all the poems because children really do look like a herd of elephants stampeding to buses and cars, and parents after school; a by stander has to be careful at the end of a school day. There are lots of fun images that take place in each poem as the children go through their school day. The poem "Swarm" starts off the school day when children buzz around like bees in the school yard talking to their friends while waiting for school to start. "Here, Boy!" is a hilarious poem about students acting like dogs when the lunch bell finally rings and how incredibly hungry they are. Children will find this collection of poems to be very entertaining because I think that all children can relate to several of these poems. Even the moments that are not enjoyable in school such as picture day or a crush finding out that you like them are made to seem funny.
I enjoyed the illustrations in the book as well. The illustrations are drawn to look like cartoons. The children start to almost transform in to the animal that they are being compared to. It is very creative and I think the illustrations gives children a good imagination of how they relate to each part of the school day. The pictures are colorful and bright and really bring the poem to life.
One of my favorite poems was "Rumble, Grumble, Growl!" The poem goes like this:
Hear my stomach rumble.
Hear my stomach roar.
The noise drowns out the teacher.
My belly's getting sore.
I'm a starving bear in springtime---
a bear who's slept too long.
My brain feels slow and foggy.
My appetite is strong.
I'd love some peanut butter
to jolt my brain awake.
But I'm not a picky eater--
I'll take chips or fruit or cake!
Not only is the poem so completely true of most students right before lunch but it has great simple rhymes and most children will find it very funny.
Classroom/Library Connection
Recommended audience: 1st grade-3rd grade
Laura Purdie Salas poem "Rumble, Grumble, Growl' is a great way to get kids thinking and to teach them about metaphors in a fun way. It's hard for children to concentrate at school before lunch when they are this hungry because they are just thinking about food.
Before reading: Ask they children how they feel before lunch time see if they are hungry. Ask them if they know what a metaphor is.
During reading: Read the poem to them slowly so that they can understand it all and think about the meaning of them poem. Ask them what the child was being compared to and ask them why that is a metaphor. See if they can guess that the child was being compared to a bear in springtime who has hibernated to long and wakes up starving.
Reread the poem: The second time around read the poem and have children listen for the metaphor.
After reading: Have them write about how they feel before lunch and have the children use an animal metaphor describing how they feel before lunch. Have them write about all the good foods that they think about before lunch time and ask them to write about their favorite lunch ever. Depending on the age group you could have the younger children draw a picture of them half animal half human showing how they feel before lunch with all their favorite lunch time foods scattered around the animal.
There are so many different possibilities with this poetry book and teachers and librarians could use it differently. Children will enjoy all of these poems and I look forward to sharing some of them with different children.
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