First Food Fight This Fall and Other School Poems

Written by: Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by: Sachiko Yoshikawa

Published by: Sterling Publishing, 2008

ISBN 978-1-4027-4145-6

Plot Summary:

This poetry collection covers an entire school year. Poem subjects range from the first bus ride, to the spelling tests, to the last day of school. Poems are told in the voices of the twelve students who experience these activities together.

Critical Analysis:

This quirky book of school-related poetry is sure to be a read-aloud crowd pleaser for young students. The poetry collection is a celebration of all things school-related, and students of all ages can easily relate to the content. Most students can relate to the horror of answering a math problem on the board, trading lunch items, and snow days. On the inside covers of the book, the illustrator provides a snapshot of each student in the book. This gives the reader insight into the students’ personalities, likes or dislikes, and cultures.  The collection of poems is chronologically organized, beginning with “The First Day” and ending with “Field Day.” The poems are well balanced. Some pages contain only one long poem, while others hold a few shorter poems. The illustrations are lively and friendly. The illustrator used a combination of pastels, acrylic paints, and collage items to decorate the fun and welcoming pages. This poetry collection includes a table of contents which helps the reader to locate poems by subject easily. One student in the book, Laksmim, describes her view of poetry as “lullaby words in a quiet, warm room.” The poems and illustrations in this book of poetry are too entertaining, funny, and true-to-life to cause any students to fall asleep.

Awards and Reviews:

This poetry collection was chosen for the Children's Catalog Supplement to Nineteenth Edition by the H. W. Wilson Company. (2009)

School Library Journal: Kindergarten-Grade 4—Twenty-nine poems, in the voices of a dozen children who ride the school bus together, depict various activities that take place in and out of the classroom. Bright, cartoon illustrations in acrylics, pastels, and collage capture the youngsters' boundless energy. From a food fight in the cafeteria and its disastrous aftermath—a virtual indoor storm in the lunchroom—to a joyous ode to field day at year's end, these poems resonate with mischievous good cheer. Characters represent a cross-section of race and color. This collection will surely strike a familiar note with young readers.

Booklist: Twelve students from various cultural backgrounds who are in Ms. Mundy’s classroom compose 29 poems covering school-year activities from the beginning of the year to the end. In various styles of poetry, topics include classes (“Spelling,” “The Class I Love”), school activities (“Cleaning Erasers,” “Field Trip,” “Class Picture”) and, as the titles indicates, good-natured fights (“Pen Fight,” “First Food Fight This Fall,” “Water Fight’). There is much with which to identify: trouble with math, students with various strengths and weaknesses. The exuberant acrylic, pastel, and collage illustrations with swirls of activity on each page match the upbeat poems. The irreverence of a free-for-all food fight is counterbalanced by the pure joy expressed for the more endorsed school activities. The poem following the food fight is somber, seeming to indicate that the students realize things got out of hand, and showing a few of them cleaning up with a very angry principal. Children will enjoy the poetry and find comparisons and contrasts to situations in their daily routines. Grades 1-3.

Kirkus: Lively and engaging acrylic-and-pastel illustrations that include bits of lace, fabric and other found items accompany 29 poems describing the school experiences, from first day to last, of a middle-grade class. A variety of styles are included: haiku, quatrain, acrostic, free verse and others. Most of the poems are no more than ten to 12 lines and are written in the students' voices, with child-appealing topics like "Tag" and "The Class I Hate." The title poem may make school administrators cringe, as food flies across the double-page spread: "A cafeteria ballad— / it started with tossed saladà / (That lettuce really flew! / We're glad it wasn't stew!)" Happily, the following poem, "Indoor Storm," finds everyone pitching in to clean up the disaster. The interesting combination of identifiable poetic forms and Yoshikawa's amusing illustrations should make this a popular choice for classroom reading, as students recognize at least some of their own school experiences (though, one hopes, not food fights) in the poetry.

Connections:

Two poems in this collections, “The Class I Hate” and “The Class I Love,” are written by the same student, Fumi. Each poem is actually written about the same class, physical education. Fumi hates gym class because she doesn’t enjoy team sports, but she loves gym when they get to dance. Have each student choose a school subject or class and write two poems. One poem about what they love about the class, and the other about what they hate.

The acrostic poem “Marylou Mundy” is a poem that describes the students’ teacher. Have each student write an acrostic poem describing themselves, one of their teachers, or a friend or family member. This would make a great gift for Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, or a birthday. Illustrate the poem using pastels, acrylic paint, or collage art.

Related Titles:

Franco, Betsy. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and Other School Poems for Two Voices. Somerville: Candlewick, 2009.

Lewis, J. Patrick. Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year. New York: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009.

Shields, Carol Diggory. Lunch Money and Other Poems About School. London: Puffin Books, 1998.

Singer, Marilyn. I’m Your Bus. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009.