Scranimals

Scranimals

Written By: Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated By: Peter Sis

Harper Collins Publishers, 2002

37 Pages

Poetry Book

     I chose this book, because it is filled with nonsense poetry.  The poems are about two children who are exploring Scranimal Island.  As they are exploring, they come across animals that they have never seen before.  Each poem describes the animal that the children see.  Each animal is a combination of two different things, whether it is another animal, or a plant, or maybe even a fruit.  The story begins with the children seeing a rhinoserose, which is the combining of a rhino and a rose.  They also see a potatoad.  The potatoad is a potato combined with a toad.  The children also see some parrotters; these animals are half parrott, half otter.  In the middle of the story, the two children see some broccolions (broccoli that is part lion).  The broccolion have their eyes on some antelopetunia (antelope and petunia), which become their prey. Then, towards the end of the story the children come across a mangorilla (mango and gorilla), an oranutangerine (orangutan and tangerine).  And last, they see an avacododo, which is half do do bird, half avocado.  Each one of these animals has certain animal traits or characteristics that make them unique. The author does a great job describing them in his poetry.  Each poem also rhymes. 

     The illustrations in this book are really good at depicting how each animal that the author describes looks.  The artist painted the pictures with watercolors.  He also used black line.  I think this was a great choice, because it helps illustrate the landscaping of the island; texture is used really well.  Each page is very detailed and includes pictures in the background of other animals that the children have already seen.  I think this is really neat, because it shows the reader where the children are on the island, and where they have been, also.  The can tell the artist put a lot of time into his work as far as the illustrations of the island go.  There is even a map in the front of the book that shows where everything is located on the island. 

    This book could be used in several different ways in the classroom.  It could be used to teach a lesson on rhyming.  It could be used for the vocabulary in the book, also, because the author uses a variety of descriptive words; adjectives could be another lesson for this book.  I could also use it to teach about animal traits, and how each animal has a different means of survival.  I could point out the broccolions, and how they catch their prey.  There is also a radishark in the book (radish and shark combined) that I could also use to teach survival traits (I just summarized a few animals in my summary, but there are several more).  The do do bird in the story is an extinct animal, also; I could incorporate what extinct animals are in this lesson as well.  I would have my students write about their favorite animal in the story, or have the students make up their own animal and explain its traits.  There are so many things you could do with this book! I think it is most appropriate for grades one through three.