Review: World Rat Day by J. Patrick Lewis

Lewis, J.P. 2013. WORLD RAT DAY: POEMS BOUT REAL HOLIDAYS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 9780763654023.

Lewis, J.P. 2013. WORLD RAT DAY: POEMS BOUT REAL HOLIDAYS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF. Ill. By Anna Raff. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN 978076365402. 

For parents, teachers and librarians already familiar with award-winning author J. Patrick Lewis, his whimsical World Rat Day: Poems about real holidays you’ve never heard of is a lighthearted look anyone will enjoy. When paired with Anna Raff’s fun and quirky illustrations, young readers are sure to enjoy this book of poetry.

Since the poems in this book are all written by award-winning author J. Patrick Lewis, the quality of the poems is consistent. The twenty-six poems focus on twenty-two different holidays most people may not be familiar with. Like the title suggests, the poems focus on holidays that celebrate animals.  Out of the collection, there is one poem that may cause some parents, teachers and librarians to skip over it- “Jack A.”. While most of the other poems contain lively rhyme schemes, this poem unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb in the collection.

The layout of the book will appeal to most readers because the poems bring the reader through holidays, from January to December. For the most part Lewis has dedicated one poem to each holiday. The one exception to this is that the five limericks celebrating Limerick Day, April 12. Sharing these poems with a young group of students will give a simple introduction into a fun, whimsical type of poem, the limerick.

Anna Raff’s illustrations in this book use bright, fun colors. The way Raff shows the various animals doing things humans do will spark the reader’s imagination. From a hippo reading a book called Hippo Drones to the rat listening to an IPod, to the sheep dressed up like a diva singing, young readers are sure to love seeing all the silly antics of the rats and other animals.

The poem “Bats” is a great example of how Lewis uses sensory images to capture a simple nocturnal creature. The bats are described as “sweepers of twilight”. The second stanza is as follows:

            Black sacks in the morning

            Airmailed at night

            Dispatchers of insects

            In boomerang flight

This poem and the others in it could be used in conjunction with other animal poetry books, other holiday poetry books or even in a science unit on animals. A fun activity to do with students with this book would be to have the types of animals featured in the poems written on posters, displayed around the room. Then the parent, teacher, or librarian could instruct students to choose a particular animal station to begin at. At each station there will be copies of the poem about that particular animal/holiday.

As the students read through the poems aloud with each other, they could talk about what they like about the poem (and what they don’t like) and record favorite lines in their writer’s notebooks. In addition, there could even be photographs or poster illustrations of the animals. A fun way to get the kids moving would be to play some upbeat music and have the kids rotate to the different stations so that everyone is able to read each poem, preferably with a partner. This activity could be done as a morning wake-up activity or in the afternoon ‘slump’ of the day after lunch!

World Rat Day book cover. JPEG. Retrieved from http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763654027&pix=n