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A review by gymnerdreader
Lend a Hand: Poems about Giving by John Frank
4.0
Annotated Bibliography Entry: Lend a Hand by John Frank
Text Set: Kindness
Genre: Poetry
Summary:
This book is made up of various poems about kindness and helping others out when they need help. It focuses on the little acts of kindness that can touch peoples' hearts and make a difference in the world. The collection features different poems about lending a hand, but it also includes various situations of people being kind. They have some poems about service dogs, teaching someone the correct stance in baseball, training a service dog, giving up your seat on a bus, donating your hair for wigs and even writing a letter to a solder (which was probably my favorite one). So variety of different situations are used and it teaches kids that being kind can come in all shapes and sizes so to speak.
Personal Response:
One of the things I liked the most about this book is the fact that it displays diverse situations of being being kind and I think that sends a really good message to kids. Not only does it teach children that kindness matters, it teaches children that they can choose kindness in any situation that they are in. Kindness is more than being nice to someone and you can be kind without really realizing it, which is something these poems touched on as well. It is about those little acts of kindness that makes the world go round. I think it is important we are teaching children to value those little acts of kindness and encourage them to try to do an act of kindness each day. This is definitely an important poetry book for kids.
Descriptions of Illustrations:
These illustrations feature a lot of shading and coloring using more natural colors. This is evident in the pictures that are more nature based. I also noticed that the illustrations seemed to change in style depending on the poem. Some were very clear and you could make out a lot of detail, such as the one about the bus and then there are some pictures that are more obscure and slightly abstract. I definitely like the illustrations and I liked how they fit each individual poem. They appear very realistic with the use of earthly tones.
Classroom Connections:
This a book that SHOULD be used in the classroom because of the important messages of these poems. Teachers can use this book to discuss kindness and ways students can perform little acts of kindness each day and how that can make a difference in the world. Students can make their own posters displaying all the nice things they do for people during the day. Students can then use those posters to create their own poems about a time when they helped some one out that needed their help. Since most of these poems are free verse, teachers can use these poems to teach older students about free verse poems and the characteristics of that type of poetry. Also, since these poems use multiple different subjects and situations these poems could be useful to incorporate into other subjects, such as science and math. For example, there is a poem about the environment and cleaning up trash in a stream. Teachers can use that poem during a science lesson for older kids (prob grades 3 or 4) about cleaning up the environment or about recycling (this would also work well). This would be a good idea since poetry should be incorporated into the classroom everyday.
Text Set: Kindness
Genre: Poetry
Summary:
This book is made up of various poems about kindness and helping others out when they need help. It focuses on the little acts of kindness that can touch peoples' hearts and make a difference in the world. The collection features different poems about lending a hand, but it also includes various situations of people being kind. They have some poems about service dogs, teaching someone the correct stance in baseball, training a service dog, giving up your seat on a bus, donating your hair for wigs and even writing a letter to a solder (which was probably my favorite one). So variety of different situations are used and it teaches kids that being kind can come in all shapes and sizes so to speak.
Personal Response:
One of the things I liked the most about this book is the fact that it displays diverse situations of being being kind and I think that sends a really good message to kids. Not only does it teach children that kindness matters, it teaches children that they can choose kindness in any situation that they are in. Kindness is more than being nice to someone and you can be kind without really realizing it, which is something these poems touched on as well. It is about those little acts of kindness that makes the world go round. I think it is important we are teaching children to value those little acts of kindness and encourage them to try to do an act of kindness each day. This is definitely an important poetry book for kids.
Descriptions of Illustrations:
These illustrations feature a lot of shading and coloring using more natural colors. This is evident in the pictures that are more nature based. I also noticed that the illustrations seemed to change in style depending on the poem. Some were very clear and you could make out a lot of detail, such as the one about the bus and then there are some pictures that are more obscure and slightly abstract. I definitely like the illustrations and I liked how they fit each individual poem. They appear very realistic with the use of earthly tones.
Classroom Connections:
This a book that SHOULD be used in the classroom because of the important messages of these poems. Teachers can use this book to discuss kindness and ways students can perform little acts of kindness each day and how that can make a difference in the world. Students can make their own posters displaying all the nice things they do for people during the day. Students can then use those posters to create their own poems about a time when they helped some one out that needed their help. Since most of these poems are free verse, teachers can use these poems to teach older students about free verse poems and the characteristics of that type of poetry. Also, since these poems use multiple different subjects and situations these poems could be useful to incorporate into other subjects, such as science and math. For example, there is a poem about the environment and cleaning up trash in a stream. Teachers can use that poem during a science lesson for older kids (prob grades 3 or 4) about cleaning up the environment or about recycling (this would also work well). This would be a good idea since poetry should be incorporated into the classroom everyday.