POETRY BOOKS: Button Up! by Alice Schertle

Button up!

By Alice Schertle

               Illustr. by Petra Mathers

Shertle, Alice. 2008. BUTTON UP! Ill. by Petra Mathers. Orlando: Harcourt. ISBN  9780152050504

Plot Summary

               This book is a collection of 15 short, illustrated poems, each about a different piece of clothing. Being from the perspective of clothes, the reader is given an interesting insight to how the clothes interact with their animal wearers, their feelings, purposes, and backgrounds.

Critical Analysis

               These fun and humorous poems have a lightness to them, though the clothes take themselves very seriously. Tanya’s old t-shirt insists she does not deserve to be a rag, as Tanya is the one who grew, the shirt didn’t shrink.

               The poems are written with distinct rhythm and rhyme, adding to the fun of the typically short lines which beg to be read aloud or even sung. The unforced rhyming gives bounce and fluency which fit the quirky subjects. Schertle makes use of different sound techniques in different poems, including alliteration, onomatopoeia, and repetition, such as the galoshes that squash and the “ghastly and ghoulish and ghostly” sheet turned Halloween costume.

               Personification is prevalent throughout, with the clothes who think and feel and have personalities. Words are carefully selected to best reflect the situation and personality of each article of clothing. Sensory words allow the reader to clearly see and feel the itchy, twitchy sweater, and the curled toes of the wearer of a pair of shoes. Most intriguing is the communication of the emotions of the clothes, which the reader easily identifies with and relates to. The clothes are not only concerned about themselves, but include their feelings about their wearers.

               There is a variety of formats of poetry and ways the poems are arranged on the page, which are reflective of the content of the poem. The illustrations add detail, including the depiction of the menagerie of animals who wear the clothes. These poems will appeal greatly to young readers with their simplicity and fun, but the topic would also intrigue older readers.

Awards, Honors, Best Book Lists:

Best Children's Books of the Year , 2010 ; Bank Street College of Education; United StatesBooklist Book Review Stars , May 15, 2009 ; United StatesHorn Book Fanfare, 2009 ; United StatesKirkus Best Children's Books, 2009 ; United StatesKirkus Book Review Stars, March 15, 2009 ; United StatesSchool Library Journal Book Review Stars, May 2009 ; Cahners; United States

Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, 2010 Winner United States Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, 2010 Winner Grades K-3 United States

Review Excerpts

Kathleen Isaacs (Booklist, May 15, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 18))

With varied rhymes and rhythms occasionally disrupted for emphasis, Schertle’s poetry is reminiscent of A. A. Milne and begs to be read aloud.

Ellen Welty (Children's Literature)

The whimsical watercolor illustrations are engaging and perfectly capture the attitude of each piece of clothing. They also reinforce words and images in the minds of beginning, readers encouraging children to read on their own. These poems are great for reading aloud in a classroom or sharing on a lap.

Connections

Other poetry books by Alice Schertle:

I am the cat
1999 by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Mark Buehner. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, New York

Teddy bear, teddy bear
2003 poems by Alice Schertle ; paintings by Linda Hill Griffith. HarperCollins, New York

A lucky thing
1999 poems by Alice Schertle ; paintings by Wendell Minor. Harcourt Brace, San Diego

*Students could compare the poems with different topics, then write their own set of poems with a common chosen topic

*Students could compose poems from the perspective of a common inanimate object.