Tap Dancing on the Roof Sijo (Poems) was written by Linda Sue Park and published by Clarion Books in 2007. Linda Sue Park won the Newberry Medal for her 2001 book A Single Shard.
I saw Linda Sue Park speak at an SCBWI conference and she was very inspiring. To this day, I remember her describing for us her devotion to her writing, coming home from working all day and writing every day for a couple of hours. And I remember her advice that we writers should be reading. She read stacks of MG novels before she wrote one. How can you write an MG novel if you’ve never read one? I think she asked us. If memory serves me well.
Tap Dancing on the Roof is a wonderful book of poetry for children. There are poems about nature, sports, the details of everyday life children enjoy thinking about, and school amongst others. The book also explains what a Korean sijo poem is and the author gives advice on how to write one. If I were a teacher, I’d use this book in my classroom. We’d read the book and then try and write a sijo poem. The poems seem perfect for the 8 to 12 crowd.
Sijo poems are short poems in three to six lines with a set number of stressed syllables. Each line must be composed in a certain manner with the last line containing a twist.
My favorite poem in the book titled Important Announcement is about the loudness and color of spring yet the apple tree’s blossoms are like “one last drift of pale-pink snow.”
I think I will try to write a sijo poem.
Our selection last month once again had us travelling all over the world and this time included poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
First of all, in honor of Poetry Month in the US, we chose Linda Sue Park’s Tap Dancing on the Roof as our reading-together book. We’ve all had great fun dipping into it and taking it in turns to choose and read the poems to each other. There were some gem moments like Older Brother discovering the sijo about how annoying it is to be summoned out of bed to go and clean your teeth – minutes after being subjected to the same treatment himself! The more we explored the poems, the more I marvelled at Linda’s knack for getting the words just right – whether she’s describing a very ordinary, every day event or taking off on a flight of whimsy and metaphor. I’ve already blogged about Tap Dancing on the Roof so I won’t say any more here, but pass on to…
… Older Brother’s choice, which was Grandpa Chatterji by Jamila Gavin, illustrated by Peter Bailey. Here’s what he (aged 9 1/2) has to say:
I really enjoyed Grandpa Chatterji and I thought it was very funny sometimes, especially the part at the fair when Grandpa and Sanjay went on the rockets and they flew up into the air – when they came off they were green! Then in the evening Sanjay said, “Shall we have another go next time?” and Grandpa replied, “Maybe.”
I learned that in India some people pray standing on one foot and then when they pray they say, “Om” and the O is like the shape of the sun. People think of God as the sun because he is bright and the light of the world.
I would recommend reading it because I think people would enjoy it. Now I want to read the other two Grandpa Chatterji books.
In the meantime, Little Brother has enjoyed dipping into and absorbing the Australian Creatures of the Rainforest:Two artists explore Djabugay country by 
Warren Brim and Anna Eglitis:
I love books, especially encyclopaedia books about animals. This book has some animals in that I love, like echidnas and kookaburras and bandicoots. I learned that some ants are edible (the green ants) and I learned some words in Djabugay like gurrina, which means echidna, and badil, which is a zamia palm tree. Luckily at the end there is a guide to how you say their letters.
The book is by two artists – first there are lino cuts then there are original aboriginal pictures. It is very good.
So, as you can see, we are very much enjoying the PaperTigers Reading Challenge and I know my boys are finding the books they’ve chosen to be fun and enriching. Do let us know how you are getting on – only a couple more months to go!
