Schoolyard Rhymes: Kids Own Rhymes for Rope Skipping, Hand Clapping, Ball Bouncing, and Just Plain Fun

**This review was created for an assignment at Texas Woman's University**

Book Review: Schoolyard Rhymes: Kids’ Own Rhymes for Rope Skipping, Hand Clapping, Ball Bouncing, and Just Plan Fun.

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sierra, Judy. 2005. SCHOOLYARD RHYMES: KIDS’ OWN RYHMES FOR ROPE SKIPPING, HAND CLAPPING, BALL BOUNCING, AND JUST PLAIN FUN. Ill. Melissa Sweet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
ISBN: 0375925163

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Schoolyard Rhymes is a collection of traditional and contemporary children’s playground lore that will delight readers with its’ witty and playful rhymes.

In this collection of rhymes, “Coca-Cola goes to town knocking Diet Pepsi down”, Miss Mary Mack comes back, and Tarzan loses his underwear while flying through the air. This body of playground lore features silly poems and various text forms of poetry many of which are parodies of traditional nursery rhymes and folktales.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Humor and rhyme come together this collection making this book one that lends itself to sharing with students through reading aloud and shared reading experiences.

Rhymes jump off the page with colorful and beautifully drawn illustrations. Text winds up, down, and across the pages taking on forms of the objects they describe. Students will read poems in the shape of jump rope, banana trees, and clothing lines.

Traditional playground folklore blends well with the nonsense rhymes and poems in this collection offering readers a variety of stylistic reading material in one book.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist – “Sweet's comical, mixed-media art adds to the wackiness of the rhymes, with jump ropes commanding a prominent position, whether used by children or pickles or bears.”
School Library Journal – “This is a definite winner, as it will be enormously popular with children.”

5. CONNECTIONS
*After reading selections from this text, students can write their own nonsense poems using a variety of mediums to print and publish their writing.
*Students can take their individual nonsense rhymes and poetry and combine them into a larger class book.
*Teachers can choose and read traditional nursery rhymes and encourage students to write their own ending adding a new twist for a humorous ending.