July 8, 2009

Naked Bunyip Dancing - by Steven Herrick

This book has nothing to do with bunyips, naked or otherwise.  What's a bunyip?  No clue. What I do know is that this book tells the story of one sixth grade class in Australia with their wild new peace-loving vegetarian hippie teacher.  What makes the book really cool is that the entire thing is written in poems!  Each page has a poem from a different character's point of view, and as you read through the book, you begin to really recognize each character's voice and style, in a way you wouldn't in a regular novel.  Don't be scared by the poetry - it is super-easy to read, and actually makes the book very enjoyable.  What you will love about this book is how the author shows the kids in the class intertacting with each other and the teacher.  There's a lot of funny stuff going on at this school!

The author is Australian, and the story is set there.  American students may not know what some of the words mean at first, but they'll figure it out pretty quickly.  Read this book if you enjoy funny school stories, poetry, creative ways of writing a novel, naked bunyips, punks, rap, or peace-loving vegetarian hippie teachers who make school very interesting for their students.

1 comment:

Momo said...

Hi Mr K A bunyip is a mythical Australian creature but you don't need to know this to enjoy Steven Herrick's book. If you enjoyed Naked Bunyip look out for his other books using poetry to tell the story they are all wonderful. My favourite is Tom Jones Saves the world. I also really enoyed Do Wrong Ron. Take at a look at his web site http://www.stevenherrick.com.au/

I have been promoting poetry with my teachers all term - I like your comment that this style makes the book very easy to read and easy to 'hear' the character voices.