Science Poetry: Beast Feast

Florian, Douglas. 1994. Beast Feast. San Diego: Harcourt. ISBN: 0152951784.

Image courtesy Amazon.com

Review and Critical Analysis
Douglas Florian's Beast Feast contains 21 poems depicting all types of animals. Some animals such as the ants and the caterpillar are very familiar, while others, like the rhea and the kiwi, are more unusual. Each of the book's spreads pairs one of the poems with a whimsical, full-page watercolor painting of the animal.

The poems in Beast Feast rely heavily on playful rhyme and strong rhythm for their appeal. Florian uses traditional rhyme throughout the book. For example, in  "The Sloth" he rhymes "claws" and "pause," but he also plays with pronunciation and invents words to add a comical effect. In "The Walrus" he rhymes the word "sea" with his invented "walrusty," and in "The Boa" he plays with the word more, writing it as "moa and moa."

While all the poems play with rhyme and rhythm, they structures vary significantly. They vary in length from the two-lined "The Boa" that is a fairly simple rhyming couplet to the 20-lined "The Pigeon." Several of the poems are structured as quatrains, while my personal favorite, "The Mole" is written as a two-stanza limerick. The variety of poems and structures and lengths ensure there's a poem for everyone in this book.

Florian's language in Beast Feast is very accessible for children. The wording and descriptions are mostly straightforward, with an occasional simile such as referring to a lobster as being "Like an underwater/Mobster." He does include some scientific vocabulary such as "crustacean," "invertebrates," and "reptilian" that might need explanation for younger students who have not learned the vocabulary, yet. Their inclusion, however, is not so intrusive that students who might select this book from the shelf will be completely confused.

Douglas Florian's Beast Feast won the 1995 Lee Bennet Hopkins Poetry Award and is an excellent science resource for the library or elementary classroom.

Example Poem

The Lobster

See the hard-shelled
Leggy lobster
Like an underwater
Mobster
With two claws
To catch and crush
Worms and mollusks
Into mush
And antennae
Long and thick
Used for striking
Like a stick.
So be careful
On vacation
Not to step on
This crustacean.

Activity
"The Lobster" is an especially useful poem to use with a unit on ocean life. To introduce the poem, I would engage children in a conversation about their favorite underwater animal. Ask them to share what makes that animal special before reading about the legs, pinchers, and antennae of the lobster.

As an extension, have the children write a poem about their favorite ocean animal. Encourage them to try using rhyme or a simile like the poet does in "The Lobster." The poems can also be illustrated with traditional art supplies, or the poem and illustration can be designed using an iPad or computer.