Title: Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and more
Author: Jack Prelutsky
Illustrator: Chris Raschka
Publisher: Random House Children’s books
Genre: Childrens’ poetry, picture book
Age level: 10+
Themes: Rhyme schemes, sports/physical activities, good sportsmanship, praise, determination, losing graciously
Synopsis: If you like running, jumping, throwing, and having fun playing games, then this book is meant for you! Jack Prelutsky celebrates the joy of participating in sports boys and girls play. Whether it’s baseball or soccer, gymnastics or karate, winning or losing, excellent or just being a happy klutz, these short rhymes sing out in praise of winter games, summer games, and all-year-round games. The streamlined illustrations of 2006 Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka zip across the page, capturing the motions and the emotions of the kids who play them.
Synopsis: If you like running, jumping, throwing, and having fun playing games, then this book is meant for you! Jack Prelutsky celebrates the joy of participating in sports boys and girls play. Whether it’s baseball or soccer, gymnastics or karate, winning or losing, excellent or just being a happy klutz, these short rhymes sing out in praise of winter games, summer games, and all-year-round games. The streamlined illustrations of 2006 Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka zip across the page, capturing the motions and the emotions of the kids who play them.
About the author: Jack Prelutsky grew up in the Bronx near Yankee Stadium and has always considered baseball his favorite sport. Long considered the unofficial post laureate of elementary school kids, he was officially named the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate in 2006. He has written more than forty popular, award-winning books of verse, ranging from The New Kid on the Block to What a Day It Was at School!, and has compiled eleven poetry anthologies, including The Random House Book of Poetry for Children and The Beauty of the Beast. Jack and his wife now live in Seattle.
About the illustrator: Chris Raschka played soccer in school and still does, along with basketball. He has illustrated many books, including the 2006 Caldecott Medal winner The Hello, Goodbye Window, and has written and illustrated the Caldecott Honor Book Yo! Yes?, Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, and Five for a Little One. He lives with his wife and young son on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Pre-reading activities: Students will name some of the sports they have seen, such as football, baseball, basketball. They can give some reasons why people like to play sports (because they’re fun, something to do, something to try if you’re not used to it) and why they think most sports are played on teams.
Post-reading activities: A survey will be taken of the students’ favorite sports to play or sports they have played when they were younger. The students will write their own poems about their favorite sport, talking about a time when they have been part of a big win or even a big loss. They will also illustrate their poems, using as much or as little detail as they would like since the pictures in the book are very simple.
Reflection: Going through the book as a book walk, the students could easily figure out the sports the poems are written about with the pictures being very simple and colorful. I liked how the poems cover all aspects of sports; winning and how it feels to score the winning basket in the basketball game or score the final touchdown in the big football game, but it also talks about just coming up short and how to accept defeat. I think that kids of all ages would like these poems from the pictures to the words used in the poems, and the mental images they would get as they read the poems.
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