NCTE Award Poetry
I Can Draw a Weeposaur and Other Dinosaurs
by Eloise Greenfield and Illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist
Bibliography
Greenfield. 2001. I Can Draw a Weeposaur and Other Dinosaurs. Ill. by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. New York: Greenwillow Books.
ISBN: 9780688176341
Book Review
Beautifully colored dinosaurs are created one after another by a little girl who describes her artistic process through eighteen eloquently written poems by the great Eloise Greenfield. Complete with a table of contents, Greenfield begins her picture book with a poem aptly titled, “Artist” which introduces the artistic impulses of a young girl that are just dying to get out and create the different types of dinosaurs represented throughout the book. Poems describing the little girl‘s feelings and experiences while drawing these hilarious dinosaurs are blended in between such poems as, “Smellasaurus,” “Shoppersaurus,” and “Babysaurus.” Young children will enjoy Greenfield’s poems because they are short in length and easy to understand. Children will equally enjoy the funny nonsense included within each poem. This is the perfect read aloud book for younger audiences.
Jan Spivey Gilchrist includes a lively blend of watercolors, markers, and black pen outlines that bring the poems further into being. The unique expressions included on each dinosaur further add to the positive and impulsive mood represented in these poems. Children will associate and react positively to the fully colored pages with the inclusion of added details mentioned in the poems. For instance, in the poem titled “Trickosaurus,” this dinosaur carries a tiny red umbrella while performing gymnastics stunts on a balancing beam. Then shows the outcome of this umbrella and the rest of the gymnastics team when his dismount was not what he initially expected. The sight of his flattened teammates and the floating umbrella add to the hilarious appeal of this determined, yet proud dinosaur.
Trickosaurus
He fell when he tried to do a handstand,
He fell when he walked the beam,
But he was the greatest at landing on top
Of his gymnastics team.
Extensions
This book will make the perfect partner with dinosaur units that are introduced to younger children. These poems can be read aloud and enjoyed by the class.
Children will enjoy creating their own comical make believe dinosaur complete with a poem to describe its hilarious antics. Pictures can be drawn with the same tools that Jan Spivey Gilchrist uses in this book (watercolors, markers, black pen outlines). The poems can be written with colorful markers that are present in each of Greenfield’s poems.
Enjoy other books by Eloise Greenfield:
Brother & Sisters: Family Poems - ISBN 9780060562847
For the Love of the Game: Michael Jordan and Me - ISBN 9780064435550
The Friendly Four - ISBN 9780060007591
Honey, I Love - ISBN 9780060091231
Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems - ISBN 9780064430975
In the Land of Words: New and Selected Poems - ISBN 9780060289935
Image Source: Barnes & Noble