Poetry Review # 7 Verse Novel

Where I Live

Spinelli, Eileen. Where I Live. New York: Penguin Group, 2007.

Critical Analysis:

The ordinary life of an ordinary girl, Diana, is brought to life in the various poems of this verse novel by Eileen Spinelli.  Readers become involved in the happenings of this family, especially those of Diana, the main character, and her daily interactions with her family, her best friend Rose, and her Grandpa Joe who lives six hours away.  Spinelli has created a lasting and memorable book of verse with concrete meaning that tells a story that any child in elementary school can relate to.  Her clever use of simple language and childlike meaning make this verse novel easy to read, but hard to put down!  One of my favorite elements was how the titles seemed to fit each poem so well, but even more so, helped the novel to flow freely.  Diana has the best life ever in her yellow house where she lives, a great dad who loves to tell jokes, a mother who makes the best brownies, a sister whom she claims she named, and a best friend with whom she shares everything, even her diary.  Life couldn’t be any better, she has won a poetry contest with her poem about the Sun, has been asked to attend a Poetry Workshop with a real poet during the summer and…..then the unthinkable happens.  The good is suddenly turned to bad in the poem The Bad News, when dad announces he has lost his job, and the bad becomes even worse in More Bad News, when mom announces Grandpa Joe fell and broke his arm and she has to go and stay with him for a few weeks.  As if it couldn’t get any worse, the poem titled The Worst News of All informs readers in only five words, “We are going to move”.  Spinelli has captured the true essence of what childhood is all about, the friendships and experiences that make it so wonderful, and the turmoils that can turn it all upside down, in the snap of a finger.  This verse novel is creative in so many ways, from the captivating pencil sketches of Matt Phelan, to the organization of each poem in its own special way.  Spinelli has included a diverse collection of poems including short thoughts, longer poems with more feeling, numbered lists which really help the reader feel what Diana is feeling herself, and postcards and notes.  Although there is very little rhyme, the stanzas and poems in this collection build upon one another and fit together like a puzzle as they embrace triumphs and tragedies.  No matter what, Spinelli has created a meaningful masterpiece that youngsters will read over and over again.

POEM SPOTLIGHT

Blue

When Rose and I

take a break

from painting,

Twink

Sneaks into

my room.

Slappity-Slappity

paint on the wall.

Slappity-Slippity

paint on the floor.

Slappity-Sloppity

paint on the Twink.

“Oh no!”  I shriek

when I see her.

Rose giggles.

“It’s a walking

talking

blueberry!”

“Water-based paint,

I hope,” says Dad.

Mom marches Twink

down the hall.

“Into the bathtub,

young lady.”

Twink’s tub water

turns blue….

dark…

dreamy…

like a lake

after midnight.

Twink is always

making stuff like this

happen.

Accidentally.

Eileen Spinelli

Analysis:

This poem from the verse novel, Where I Live by Eileen Spinelli is a great example of the childlike theme and meaning of the entire collection.  Spinelli takes readers on a journey of an an everyday event, painting a room, and how quickly something so simple and ordinary can become…A MESS!  Her clever use of onomatopoeia in the sound of the paint splattering on the wall and floor and Twink, is appealing to young readers, and makes the event seem realistic.  You cannot help but laugh and think of Twink, the “walking, talking blueberry.”  Spinelli’s use of figurative language in the form of a metaphor creates a vivid image in the mind of readers, “”Twinks tub water turns blue…dark…dreamy…like a lake after midnight.”  Young readers can relate to the last stanza, because siblings are always getting in their way and bothering their stuff.  Twink is just like one of those younger siblings, and “Accidentally” is how it always happens.  Phelan’s sketch of Twink in the tub and Diana sitting beside her drawing her fingers through the blue water serves as a great companion to this already heartwarming poem.  There is nothing better than being a sister!

Classroom Connections:

This poem would be a great example for teaching students about onomatopoeia.  The teacher could read the poem aloud to students and see if they can figure out just by listening what sound the words, slappity, slippity, and sloppity are describing.  Give students a paint brush to squish on the desk and discuss other words that might be used as onomatopoeia  Students could brainstorm other sounds that different objects make by exploring objects in a prop box such as a bell, a hair brush, and a hammer.  As a culminating activity students could look at the metaphor describing the blue water and mix different shades of blue to paint a canvas of how the water looked.