Fold Me A Poem

Title: Fold Me a Poem
Author: Kristine O'Connell George
Illustrator: Lauren Stringer
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Publishing City: San Diego, CA
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0-15-202501-4

Summary
A series of poems about a little boy who creates various Origami animals. Most of the poems are written in free verse, but the first poem, Origami, is a Haiku. Poems range from poems about folding to poems about doctoring an animal after the cat gets to it. The illustrations by Stringer add to the poetry by showing the origami characters and their surroundings.

Review

The poems are short and mostly done in free verse. The first poem, Origami, is obviously a 5-7-5 haiku. Other poems just mimic a haiku, but do not share the syllable pattern. Children will like the poems, but will enjoy Stringer's illustrations just as much, if not more. Each illustration adds to the poem by showing the actual origami animal and the little boy interacting with the paper or paper creatures. For the poem "Camel" George talks about leaning the Camel against a sand dune, and the reader sees the salt shaker "sand dune." Students will also enjoy the little boy's cat who eyes the paper creatures, and will boo the cat when he actually catches an ostrich during a "Wind Storm". The students will be relieved when the boy fixes his ostrich, and it is shown with a band-aid in later pictures. The patterned paper used in the illustrations give depth to the animals, and is appropriate for each animal. The moth is a particularly bland beige color, and the students can imagine a green dog with other doggy friends that are red, yellow, and blue.

Professional Reviews
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2–George's 32 brief poems focus on a boy as he folds a series of origami animals and imagines their thoughts and possible activities. Some of the selections exhibit a creative spark, while others tend to take their meaning from the illustrations, which are the real strength of the presentation. The vividly colored acrylics depict the boy actively engaged in play with his creations, and the details that Stringer provides infuse the verses with both energy and humor. Her illustrator's note offers insight into her own efforts to master the art of origami. No patterns or instructions are included, although a useful bibliography is appended to guide those wishing to learn the craft themselves.–Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ

From Booklist
Gr. 1-3. From morning until night, a boy spends his day folding squares of colored paper into animals. The opening poem, "Origami," follows the five-seven-five-syllable haiku form while defining the magic of the paper-folding art: "Square sheet of paper-- / folded, suddenly wakes up. / Good morning, Rooster." While many of the other poems have the terseness of haiku, they follow their own syllabic patterns. Each appears on a single page or a double-page spread along with a large-scale painting of the boy making his animals, playing with them, observing them, or, in one case, repairing them after a cat attack. In "Hungry" he comes to a realization: "All afternoon / the paper cows / have been eyeing / the green paper. Oh. / Grass!" Warm in colors and often large in scale, Stringer's acrylic paintings capture the world of the boy's imaginative play as well as the intricately folded paper figures that inspire and inhabit it. Unusual, handsome, and good for reading aloud. Carolyn Phelan
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Connections

Get a bunch of patterned paper and print off instructions on how to create origami animals and let the children create animals as you read the poems to them.
Discuss what Origami means and how it came to be. Look up other Japanese art and see how it is used in everyday life.
Discuss this question: Is a paper airplane origami? Why does it actually fly? Turn it into a basic physics lesson.