Poetry Book Review: Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings

Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings

"The pounding spatter 
Of salty sea
Makes the walrus
Walrusty." - The Walrus

Author: Douglas Florian
Illustrator: Douglas Florian

Publisher: The Trumpet Club, Inc. 

Copyright Date: 1994

Number of Pages: 48 pages

Reading Level: Grades 1-3

Genre: Poetry

Cost: $7.97 (Amazon)

Rating: ★★★

Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings is a book filled with twenty-one different poems, as well twenty-one unique paintings. Every poem gives information about the pictured animal in a humorous way that draws the reader in. Most of the poems incorporate rhyme, and there are some that have words with a different font size, flipped words, or the words are in a different shape to help convey their meaning. This is something that is done in a concrete poem, and Douglas Florian uses that aspect to complement his poems and paintings in this book. 

Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings could easily be used in the classroom because of the variety of animals it discusses, as well as the poems that make up the book. After reading this book, students could choose their own animal and write a poem about it. This would be a fun activity to introduce students to poetry, and it could be used to teach them about concrete poetry and rhyme. Other examples of concrete poems could be used as well, but this book would show students how changing the size, font, or shape of one word can add an emphasis to the poem. 

Book Rating:

	★★★★★	★★★★	★★★	★★	★	COMMENTS
PLOT	Plot is well developed with all five elements of a good plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution).	Plot is developed, but lacking one of the five elements of plot structure.	This book has a decent plot, but is lacking two of the five elements of plot structure.	This book has a weak plot that is lacking three of the five elements of plot structure.	This book does not have a defined plot, and is lacking four or more of the five elements of plot structure.	★ I give Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings one star for its plot because the poems do not tell a story. Each poem describes an animal, and possibly some things that the given animal does, but the poems do not have a story line for the reader to follow.
CHARACTER	The characters are well developed, have personality, and are believable.	Characters are well rounded, but lack in personality or they are not totally believable.	Characters are somewhat developed, and lack in personality or they are not totally believable.	The characters are underdeveloped, lack in depth and are not believable.	The characters are not developed   so the readers cannot connect to the book.	★★★ I give Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings three stars for its characters. The focus of each poem is one given animal and Douglas Florian does well explaining some of the characteristics of each animal in the poems and paintings throughout this book, but the animals are not well-developed characters. Therefore, the characters lack in personality and are not totally believable.
PACING	The story flows freely and is not rushed or slow.	The story moves freely for the most part, but there are a few spots where it feels rushed or slow.	The story moves freely for about half of the book, but the other half is rushed or slow.	The story often moves too fast or too slow and does not move freely.	There is no pacing in the story, which makes it difficult to read.	★★★★★ I give Beast Feast: Poems and Paintings five stars for pacing because the poems are a variety of lengths, which makes the reading go smoothly throughout the book. They are also humorous, which makes the reader want to continue reading.

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