I Must Go down to the Beach Again: And Other Poems

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Editorial Reviews

Children's Literature - Debbie Levy
Take twenty-three classic poems by sixteen dead poets. Fast forward to today. Think silly or, at least, lighthearted thoughts. Rewrite the poems and update their subjects so they are accessible to kids. This is the conceit behind Shapiro's new collection of poems, and it makes for enjoyable reading. Her poetic revisions of the works of American and British masters are true to the meter and rhyme of the originals. (For example, in Shapiro's poem about a baby sister, Lord Byron's opening line, "She walks in beauty in night," becomes "She wakes up crying in the night.") The humor is more of the chuckling sort than laugh-out-loud, but it is accentuated by Love's nicely rendered and expressive black-and-white drawings. Shapiro includes endnotes identifying the poets and poems she has chosen to parody, and explaining her method. Students would derive more from the book, and Shapiro's achievement would be better highlighted, if the volume included the original poems. However, the originals are generally available on multiple Web sites, and enterprising students and teachers can easily find them.
School Library Journal
Gr 4 Up
Shapiro offers parodies of 23 classic British and American poems. In her introductory note, she states that "…though parodies are often written to make fun of something, these poems spring from deep respect." It is clear in reading her selections that the author knows the sources through and through and that she is quite a good poet in her own right. She parallels John Masefield's "Sea-Fever" with the verse: "I must go down to the beach again, where there's water,/sand, and sky,/And all I ask is my red toy boat with a string to pull it by…," matching rhyme and rhythm, if not tone. Love's black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings underscore the humor in each selection. The book is a gold mine for teachers wanting to illustrate command of certain poetic elements, and Shapiro's endnotes on her choice of poets and poems are most thoughtful. The only thing that would have strengthened the book's usefulness, and underscored Shapiro's clever wordplay, would be the inclusion of the original poems. A book to read again and again, hopefully with copies of the classic versions close by.
—Kathleen WhalinCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Gr 4 Up-Shapiro offers parodies of 23 classic British and American poems. In her introductory note, she states that "-though parodies are often written to make fun of something, these poems spring from deep respect." It is clear in reading her selections that the author knows the sources through and through and that she is quite a good poet in her own right. She parallels John Masefield's "Sea-Fever" with the verse: "I must go down to the beach again, where there's water,/sand, and sky,/And all I ask is my red toy boat with a string to pull it by-," matching rhyme and rhythm, if not tone. Love's black-and-white pen-and-ink drawings underscore the humor in each selection. The book is a gold mine for teachers wanting to illustrate command of certain poetic elements, and Shapiro's endnotes on her choice of poets and poems are most thoughtful. The only thing that would have strengthened the book's usefulness, and underscored Shapiro's clever wordplay, would be the inclusion of the original poems. A book to read again and again, hopefully with copies of the classic versions close by.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Shapiro follows up Because I Could Not Stop My Bike, and Other Poems (2003), illustrated by Matt Faulkner, with 23 more ingenious takeoffs on works from Emily Dickinson and similar renowned poets. Paying due homage to the originals with citations on the page and endnotes too, she artfully commandeers phrases and rhythms while steering the actual topics in wildly different directions. She transforms Poe's "The Bells," for instance, to "The Smells": "Use your nose and find the smells! / All the smells! / What a lot of different things your sniffing nose foretells!" Not all of the entries are satirical, but Shapiro's at her best when poking fun, whether she's riffing on Blake's "Sick Love" ("Oh, Tummy-you are sick! / I ate too much / of ice cream on a stick."), Lord Byron ("So, our noses we'll be blowing") or even Stevenson's "Requiem": "Under a polka-dotted sheet." Love's monochrome ink-and-wash illustrations feature a multi-racial cast of children in various forms of travail or postures of reverie, along with the occasional stinky sponge, spattered pet or interested-looking bird. Read these aloud, either just for fun or to add decidedly different angles to a poetry unit. (Poetry. 9-12)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781580891431
  • Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.
  • Publication date: 2/28/2007
  • Pages: 48
  • Age range: 8 - 11 Years
  • Product dimensions: 6.58 (w) x 9.32 (h) x 0.39 (d)

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 31, 2012

    Great poetry for children and adults

    I love the lightheartedness of these rewritten poems. They are a delight to read to my grandchildren.

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